Listen to Him
by some.fiction
Summary: Martha and the Doctor travel to Hell's Kitchen, where they stumble across Daredevil and other vigilantes.
1. Chapter 1: Not a Break

Most people would agree that David Tennant was a pretty creepy villain as Kilgrave, right? However, having watched him as the Doctor before made it even worse for me, because there were moments when his acting was just too familiar. So I'd imagine Jessica would certainly freakout if she met the time traveling alien and Trish would very much try to prevent that meeting if she didn't kill the man on sight.

Technically this is part of a series, but there is no need to have read any of the other stories to follow this one.

Also: If you've just seen one of these shows, it should be okay... I hope... ;)

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Their destination is supposed to be a pacifist planet that managed to resolve every conflict with ridiculously commercialised sports spectacles that everyone could benefit from for about 300 years. Until a rematch of a game was announced that had such a clear winner that even the losers were blindsided by the decision. The incident made clear exactly how corrupted the system had become and within weeks there was a huge civil war across the entire planet. The first thing that was banned right after the fighting ended was all kinds of sport.

However, this is not where the TARDIS brings Martha and The Doctor. Instead, the time travelling space ship lands in Hell's Kitchen some time before Christmas where newspaper headlines about gang wars, corruption and disappearing children already indicate that this is not going to be the break from adventure Martha was hoping for.

In fact: "I'm not sure I actually believe that these planets you're babbling about all exist. We never end up where we want to go anyway. I think a lot of it must be completely made up, just to make me curious." That alien she somehow decided to travel with never seems to have much of a plan. He has this habit of making things up as they go along. But it's part of the appeal, she has to admit.

"Come on, you love it!" She rolls her eyes at his eyebrow-waggling. "I made you meet Shakespeare, didn't I? This is gonna be brilliant, too. And for your information: Dzklvcf is a very real, beautiful place and the Dzjbffians - a charming species really - will be quite insulted hearing that you doubt their entire existence. As soon as they find out on our next trip there..."

Yeah… sure they will. Also, she's pretty sure that planet was called differently half an hour ago. Or a century ago, it's hard to keep up with the timelines. But the Doctor's enthusiasm is just too infectious, so she finds herself smiling despite herself as he picks up a newspaper and makes an appreciative sound: "Oh, look at that! They have vigilantes in this area. Now, that should be fun, right?"

She's not so sure the "Devil of Hell's Kitchen" is a character she'd like to meet in the dark, to be honest. Who calls himself something like that and isn't a complete psychopath? Of course, the Doctor loves the idea of vigilantes. People challenging the powerful scumbags in society and breaking rules all over the place. They are right up his alley, unless they are breaking his rules, of course, which are:

No unnecessary violence. (Just run if there's trouble. And there will be.)

Don't wander off. (Although: why travel with companions then who seem to like doing just that?)

And this one is the hardest to accept: Don't interfere with established events. Who exactly decides whatever these fixed points in time are? What has to happen? Who can be saved? What tragedies should be prevented and which ones are necessary to learn from? Or is it maybe just random?

"Do you hear that?" Now there's not just that curious energy in his voice, but a hint of alarm. His eyes light up at the promise of a new mystery. Trouble. Right. "I think I can hear someone fighting…!"

He breaks into a sprint and Martha catches up with him fast. Three alleys down they find the origin of that noise and she curses the TARDIS for bringing them right to the Devil. Of course, the ship usually seems to bring them right where they're needed. Which means either the guy with the horns has to be locked away or he is going to need their help. Although right now she's leaning towards him being the bad guy. At least that's the logical conclusion if you see someone dressed up as satan apparently torturing someone. But if her journeys with the Doctor has taught her anything it is not to judge a book by its cover.

Her alien travel guide seems to be on the same page, though. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

The Devil pushes the man he seems to be questioning roughly against the wall and holds him there. "I'm trying to find a missing kid. What's it to you?"

His voice sounds deep and dangerous, not like someone they should be provoking… "Doctor…" She wants to remind him that while he might just change his appearance when he gets killed, humans like herself only have one life to spend.

"You do know that it doesn't really work, right? Torture..."

Of course, the first thing he does is lecture the dangerous man with advanced fighting skills like an arrogant know-it-all. She's tempted to return to the TARDIS on her own, but someone has to look after this madman or she won't have a driver to bring her back home and become a real doctor. Fortunately the Devil he's talking to seems to be busy hitting someone else. "It does work when you know they're lying." He then punches the man again. "And you are, aren't you? You do know where they are keeping the boy. Tell me!"

So, he's doing it to save a child at least, but his punches aren't exactly reluctant. Martha has a feeling that the guy is enjoying this. Is he dressing up as a devil to punish people for their crimes?

"Stop it! There has to be another way to do this."

The vigilante really doesn't care for the distraction and now he looks like he will soon be losing his patience with them. Kicking the man who may be a criminal half heartedly he growls at the Doctor: "I wish there was another way… But I don't have time for this..."

"Give me his phone." The Doctor holds out his hand with an encouraging smile while the masked man seems to stare at him, his jaw tensed. "Please. Just let me try something. Your... interrogation will take longer."

It's not like she doesn't trust the Doctor. He knows what he's doing, but she certainly doesn't trust the guy who's hiding his face. How would he be able to see through that thing..? Is he even human?

To her surprise, though, the man does reach inside his victim's jacket to search for something. Then, to everyone's surprise, the guy he tortured uses this moment to attack him with a brick against the head. In the struggle the phone falls to the ground, but it slides too far out of reach and the criminal decides to leave it and make a run for it. At first the vigilante starts to follow him, but it looks like his head took more damage than it seemed. After Martha picks up the phone she sees him holding his head with one hand and steadying himself against the wall with the other. He curses softly and then turns back around to them.

"Please, tell me you can open that." His voice now sounds a lot less menacing, almost gentle.

Before he uses the sonic screwdriver to unlock the phone, the Doctor points it at this Daredevil guy with a frown. "You should probably go to a hospital. You have a broken bone and maybe a concussion now…"

Suddenly the vigilante is back to being the scary man in the dark again, standing tall in front of the Doctor and warning him: "This is none of your business. Open the phone or I'll make you. A child's life is at stake here. I'm not joking!"

"I'm not joking either. You really shouldn't be fighting criminals like this." He raises his eyebrows, still reading his scan curiously. "Then again, going by how often your bones have already been broken and healed badly, you never go to the hospital. So, never mind."

The Doctor takes the phone then and reluctantly opens it with his buzzing screwdriver muttering darkly… "There's no need for violence. I promise you'll regret it."

"Oh, I know I will…" And again he sounds more tired than scary.

The Doctor is just browsing through the phone when they hear footsteps approach. A woman in a costume with cat ears - probably that Hellcat person - appears around the corner yelling: "Shit, you lost the other one, too?!"

Martha expects the vigilante to blame the Doctor for this, since it kind of is his fault. But the Devil's head is held low and he swallows as if he's blaming himself, not really the man he was arguing with before. "Yeah… but this guy thinks he can find something in the man's phone."

The woman only glances at the Doctor who's still searching through the messages. Her focus is on the guy she's working with, so when she reaches them she first inspects his head carefully. "This doesn't look good, Devil Boy…"

"It's fine. You're bleeding, too." It's weird, Martha doesn't see any wound on the woman or tear in her costume, so she has no idea what he's seeing.

"Yeah… well, they tried to hit me with a car, but I was too fast." There's a cocky smile spreading on her face. "I told Jessica to look out for them."

That's when the Doctor suddenly looks up with a huge grin: "I knew all this sounded familiar. You're talking about Jessica Jones, aren't you..? This is brilliant! Then you must be Matt Murdock and Trish-"

And that's when the woman suddenly knocks him out with a fast hook, looking back at "Matt" with a pale expression that is even visible with half her face under the mask. "Did he give you any orders?"

"What?" Daredevil seems just as confused as Martha by this turn of events.

"You can't just punch someone unconscious like that…!" This has gotten out of control fast.

"He's not just anyone. He's psychopath!" Wow, that woman is not joking. She's very convinced that she knows the Doctor. Could it actually be that she does, somehow? That she saw him do something that looked very dubious, maybe?

"Hey, calm down." Looks like the Devil guy is the voice of reason between those two. Who would have thought? "What are you talking about? He didn't seem dangerous before.…" Yeah, you were the dangerous masked freak who was torturing someone, Martha agrees. But she doesn't say anything. Some hero.

"That…" The crazy cat lady points at the Doctor, her arm trembling, voice now wavering. "...is Kilgrave." She's clearly terrified.

The name also seems to mean something to her partner, because he now pales as well. No, that can't be right. Sure, the Doctor is known by many names and some of them make people tremble with fear, but only the bad guys and despite their tendency to use violence, people who want to save kids are usually not too bad.

"Hang on a second….", Martha starts carefully. "Um… who's this Kilgrave guy supposed to be? I think you're making a mistake here…"

Suddenly the redhead with the cat mask turns to her angrily. "He looks and sounds exactly like him. That is a mind controlling mass murderer."

"Isn't Kilgrave supposed to be dead?" Finally a helpful comment. Maybe this Devil of Hell's Kitchen charcter isn't so bad after all.

"He wouldn't be the first to come back from the dead though, would he? And he knew Jessica's name!" Martha has never heard of this Jessica woman. Maybe she traveled in the TARDIS, too? The masked man seems to actually consider this crazy idea of the Doctor being this evil mastermind. "You especially won't be able to live with the things he's gonna make you do. Jessica can't go through that again. Please, trust me and let me kill him…!"

"Woah… no! Seriously, you've got the wrong man here. The Doctor is against violence and he'd never try to take anyone's free will. I won't let you kill him." Martha has her head held high, but she can imagine the woman now raising her eyebrows at her under her mask.

"Oh really…? And how exactly are you going to stop me? Did he maybe order you to attack anyone who threatens him..?" The woman now holds her hand like a claw making sharp little knives appear on each fingertip and holding them against the Doctor's throat.

This is enough. Martha then grabs the sonic screwdriver and points it at the woman. She can't know that it's not exactly a weapon. "Leave him alone."

"So, you ARE threatening me now?"

"Only because YOU want to kill a man who can't even defend himself right now."

Suddenly the Devil steps in front of Martha, facing the crazy cat lady. "Please, I don't think she actually intends to hurt anyone with that thing." He tries to make her lower that claw. "And did Kilgrave even have two hearts like this man…?"

Now the woman looks like this piece of information actually throws her off for a second. But then the Doctor begins to stirr - probably earlier than they expected - and everything happens way too fast. Before Martha can react and help her friend, Daredevil knocks her out. And she just started to trust the guy.


	2. Chapter 2: Questions, Answers & Orders

Martha wakes up in a strange apartment. A colourful neon ad and the lights of the Christmas decoration in the street are giving the place a surreal vibe through the large windows. Her hands are tied behind her back and so are the Doctor's. They must have made sure that he's out of it for a long time, because usually he has already thought of several ways to escape when she joins him in consciousness. She pushes his shoulder to wake him up and whispers: "Doctor…! Please, we have to get out of here..." But there's no reaction. Looks like they're gonna spend Christmas evening as hostages in Hell's Kitchen.

At least these vigilantes haven't killed them yet for some reason and she can hear them talk quietly. The man who must be the Devil is now treating the crazy cat lady's wounds who turns out to be a blonde. Somehow that doesn't surprise her. Shit, the Doctor is going to flirt with her, isn't he? He always likes the blondes... At least this one hates him.

Apparently they took them here because they have no lead on their kidnapping case anymore, due to that phone being locked again. Huh… that at least means that they could maybe use the Doctor's help. A reason to keep him alive. They have both taken off their costumes - to take care of their injuries she assumes - which means if they are desperate enough to hide their identities, they are going to kill them. Martha thinks she will have to win their trust to survive. But how? Maybe what they are talking about could give her some clues.

"I'm sorry for freaking out when I saw him. It was fine after he wasn't able to talk anymore, but I was in shock. I truly believed he might have given you orders already or that you don't believe me…"

"Relax, Trish. I promise I won't let him go until you're also convinced that he's harmless. But I won't let you hurt him either, unless I'm convinced that he's Kilgrave." She winces as he puts pressure on her wound before carefully wrapping bandages around it. "It would be easier if Jessica could-"

"NO! She's finally in a good place. We're not gonna pull her back into this Kilgrave shit. She needs to be as far from this as possible." Blondie is clearly agitated, so he lays a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Okay… I understand. The girl is awake, by the way." Shit! How does he know? Did he hear her talk to the Doctor?

The woman sighs and jumps off the table making her way over to Martha with the guy close behind her. Now that they look like normal people, they're a bit less scary at least. Well, the blonde still looks pretty anxious and Martha doesn't like the way she glances at the Doctor. The Devil though just told her he won't let her hurt him and Martha finds that she really wants to believe that. They each take a chair and sit down in front of them.

Hellcat leans forward then to intimidate her. "So, here is how this goes: You're going to answer our questions truthfully and trust that we'll know when you're lying. Because when you do, I'm going to kill this man, alright?" Daredevil then tilts his head in that weird way he also did in the costume.

"I'd be lying if I said: yes, that's alright," Martha points out and a bitter laugh escapes the woman who's now merely inches in front of her.

"Sassy. I like it. Brainwashed slaves usually aren't sassy." She looks at the guy next to her who seems to stare at nothing as if he's absent minded. But he nods slowly, so she goes on. "This is Matt Murdock and I'm Trish Walker. We figured this man knew our identities anyway. So, there's no point hiding them from you and we brought you to Matt's place to talk..."

"Wait a second…" She knows that name and suddenly the woman's face looks oddly familiar. Like an older version of a girl that Martha was not afraid of at all. "You're Patsy…?!"

The apparently fake blonde now looks at her like she wants to kill her with her ice cold stare. But she goes on, clearly annoyed: "I go by Trish nowadays…"

Wow. In her time this woman is still a lot younger and trying to go from child star to pop star with a horrible song and a trashy music video to go with it. If she doesn't want to be reminded of that Martha really can't blame her. And how did she then end up becoming a vigilante…?! In any case, she's much more intrigued by Trish now that she used to be a wannabe singer. There has to be a story there.

"I'm Martha. I'd say nice to meet you, but to be honest I'm not so thrilled about the circumstances." Being with the Doctor leads to unfriendly encounters on a regular basis, so Martha is a bit used to it. Normally, they also manage to turn things around and get people on their side. Still, she's not gonna pretend the death threats don't bother her and it would be real helpful if the smartass next to her could join this conversation. Although, right now he has a tape over his mouth, probably a precaution, so he can't give anyone orders. Looks like it's her turn then to talk them out of this mess.

After a few moments "Trish" has managed to shake of that memory of her past again and continues her interrogation. "You have to explain to us, how he knows our names and how he knows Jessica if he isn't Kilgrave."

"That you would have to ask him. My guess is that the Doctor must have seen you at some point." Or he will meet you in your future, Martha thinks, but doesn't say. "Or maybe, he could have met someone who knows you. He's extremely clever. If anyone could figure it out, it's him." She's not lying, just leaving some stuff out. So far, so good.

"Okay, sounds like we'll have to ask him himself later," the man with the weirdly unfocused eyes says and smiles to break some of the tension, she thinks. Martha decides she rather likes Matt and not just because he's a bit pretty. He seems to try to resolve this situation without any more violence after all. At least there's no hint of danger in those eyes that for some reason never really seem to meet her gaze… which is weird. Or maybe…

Could it be...? ...!

"You're blind! Oh my god!" Wow, the Doctor would love that! Well, maybe it's a bit sad as well, but it's also rather badass, if he's still able to run around town and beat up bad guys. And it explains a lot about this apartment, actually... The huge neon ad outside, the fact that there is nothing lying around and that it feels quite impersonal. It still looks oddly stylish, though.

Matt's eyebrows are now raised and there's a rather cocky smile spreading on his face. "Ah, yes. I can't see."

Now Patsy - or Trish - rolls her eyes with a tiny smirk mumbling: "Here we go…"

Okay, considering that the Devil of Hell's Kitchen is supposed to be a very strong and capable fighter, normal people would probably have questions about how that works without eyesight. But to be honest, she's seen stranger things traveling with the Doctor, so she just shrugs. "Well, I guess there are other ways to see..." She knows a guy for instance who keeps licking stuff to find out what it is... which is gross, by the way.

Her conclusion seems to please Matt so much he is actually grinning from ear to ear now. Oh god. He's cute. What the hell?! She saw him torture a guy today! How can he be cute?

Trish however seems to be confused by her easy acceptance of all that, but she just continues with her questions. "I'm guessing then that you're quite familiar with people having special abilities. So what about this man you call Doctor: Is there anything... unusual he can do?"

Okay, they must have heard of aliens in this time, but Martha isn't exactly sure if they're friendly towards them, since some alien races did try to invade Earth. So, she decides she's not gonna tell them that the Doctor belongs to a species called time lords that only look exactly like humans (or as he would say: humans look like his people).

"The Doctor - as you know - has two hearts. It's a strange condition that makes him a bit stronger than regular humans you could say and his senses are a bit better as well." Matt's would have to be even more sensitive though and since they seem to share a look - as much as you can do that with a blind man - she's probably on the right track there.

"And like I said, he's incredibly smart which sometimes means he has to help government agencies fight alien threats." See? They can't have anything against that. And it's all true. Okay, often he also ends up saving aliens from humans, but there's no need to get into all of that... This is going well, she thinks.

But Trish looks a bit worried now. "You mean he is working with S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

Martha has never heard of that organisation. "I don't know. If they are US based, maybe not. He told me he usually works with UNIT. But I promise, we won't tell anyone about you guys!"

"Are you two from the UK?" It's the first time that Matt asked something.

"Well, I am from London. The Doctor is from this place called Gallifrey. I've never heard of it before I met him…" It's a planet that's doesn't exist anymore, Martha doesn't say. It died with all the other time lords.

"Okay, so what brings you to Hell's Kitchen and how long have you been traveling together?"

These questions don't get easier to answer, if she can't lie. And the truth… it's going to sound very strange: "I'm not sure for how long I know him now. A couple of months maybe? And, I guess, we're here on a mission. We just don't know what it is… yet." That sounds more believable than: His sentient spaceship dumped us here and I still have no clue why. It might have something to do with you.

"Okay… what's his actual name? Is he called Kevin maybe? Did anyone ever call him that?"

Martha laughs, because the idea of the Doctor with a common name is just weird to her now. "No, he calls himself John Smith when we're really trying to blend in. I know, not making much of an effort, is he? But people usually know him as the Doctor."

Trish then looks at Matt sceptically. "Is all of that true…?"

He shrugs and shakes his head, apparently amused. "There is nothing that indicates to me that she's lying… Also, I think her lies would probably sound more believable."

That's probably true.

"Okay, maybe tell us a lie for once, just so Matt has has an idea what you act like then."

The man nods. "That's a good idea maybe. Lie to me."

Well, okay. That's easier. Martha grins, then she says with complete conviction: "I'm white."

That makes Matt chuckle and he turns to Trish: "My senses tell me that's a lie. Is it? I wouldn't know."

The white woman now for the first time seems to almost crack a real smile, too, when she confirms it to him. But she also sobers up quickly. "Now back to the truth. And this one is very important: Did you ever think that people sometimes listen to the Doctor, like they follow his orders without question?"

Now that gives Martha a pause, because she has seen that happen sometimes. She always assumed it was his personality making people act this way around him. He kind of charms or irritates people into obeying him. "They do, maybe. Sometimes. But I don't think this is about some sort of mind control. He just usually makes very convincing points…"

"But if he orders you to run. You do it without thinking, don't you?" Wow, how did she get this so specifically right?

"I mean, yeah, if you put it like that… But I trust him. I trust that he knows what to do."

"Did he ever tell you to trust him?"

To be entirely honest, she's not really sure. "I don't recall, but it's not like I listen to him all the time. In fact, I think he needs someone around who stops him sometimes."

"And he lets you...?"

Martha nods. "He has faith in me."

"So, what's this thing?" Trish presents the sonic screwdriver to her.

"It's a very useful tool to open doors, repair stuff or investigate. I don't know all its functions… But it's not a weapon!" What would freak these guys out, though, would probably be the fact that the Doctor is - like his ship - a bit of a telepath and he lies a whole lot. He certainly has the ability to manipulate people and she's not entirely sure that he doesn't have or know a technology that could control a person. She is however certain that he wouldn't use it. Although, with their line of questioning, maybe she wouldn't be able to tell...

And that finally makes Martha realise the horror these people must have been up against. The part where you don't even know what is your own idea anymore... There's a strange shift in the air, before Trish utters her next question. "Did this man ever tell you to… kiss him?"

Martha stares at Trish in disbelief. And a shiver runs down her spine. But then she thinks of a memory that really was rather pleasant. Oh, she would do that in an instant if he told her to. He did kiss her once, but sadly, that was only to transfer DNA and he even apologised before doing it. Not that she minded. Suddenly Martha realises that she must have zoned out, because Trish is now looking at her with a raised eyebrow and way too much concern. She doesn't want her to get the wrong idea here. "NO, it's not what you're thinking..."

Luckily that's when Matt takes over. "Okay, this isn't helping. Martha, tell me, did this man ever make you kill anyone?"

"What?! No way! He always tells people not to kill each other and, really, usually I wish they would listen to him more often."

"Happy, Trish?" Matt smiles. "It's not him. Also, the guy is awake now. He's been listening for a while actually..."

Martha then looks at the Doctor who still can't talk because of the tape over his mouth and he looks like he's still sleeping. But obviously, he was just pretending, so he now opens those big expressive eyes and looks at her. And he has obviously heard all of that. Sometimes she'd really like to know what's going on in that big head of his.

His expression is one of grief. The kind that she only saw glimpses of from time to time, whenever mankind was disappointing him or the stories of the people they met really got to him. Suddenly Martha remembers that he somehow knows who these vigilantes are. That he knows their names and either their past or their future.

"Doctor…? Are you okay?" Martha sees him sigh and then he gestures with his head in a particular direction. Matt immediately jumps up and grabs the phone from the table. He then takes the screwdriver from Trish and offers both to their hostage. He wants the Doctor's help to save the boy, of course.

Did he forget that the man is tied up? They stare at each other and Trish looks just as puzzled as her. Really, the Doctor should use this as leverage, but he wouldn't. Instead he shrugs and he lets all the robe fall down, while Matt drops everything and holds Trish in place, whispering something into her ear. Before Martha can make sense of what's going on, the Doctor has the tape off to yell excitedly: "Everybody, dance!"

He has his eyebrows raised, now grinning at all the stunned faces, except Matt who must have been aware that he could have done something like this all this time. "Does anyone feel like following my order? No? Now with that out of the way…"

He takes the screwdriver and opens the phone with a buzz. "Who here feels like rescuing a child from kidnappers?"


	3. Chapter 3: Breaking the Spell

"You were brilliant!", the Doctor beams at Martha.

"So were you. The way you just waltzed in there and offered them to leave without taking a beating… You made a pretty good case for it. I think in most places it actually would have worked." It is like a magic trick, really. Even men with guns think you're dangerous if you just act confident enough. They think you must have an ace up your sleeve. Well, until they realize that you're mostly just insane and someone is sneakily stealing their hostage.

"I guess, it was a good enough distraction for you and Matt to find the boy, while we locked the doors, so they couldn't all follow you…" He is glancing at Trish then who looks like she's thinking about something else entirely while she's leading them to her apartment to have a little Christmas Dinner and celebrate. She says it's a lot cozier there than it is at Matt's.

"And Trish, ... thank you." Martha can see the woman who tried to kill him just a few hours ago release a sigh. "At first I thought you were attacking me, but then I saw that one of the criminals had pulled a gun on me and I realised you tackled me to the ground to save me."

She also made sure they got away safely. Martha didn't really trust her before, but the Doctor insisted on working with Hellcat during their rescue mission, while she teamed up with Daredevil. He was obviously hellbend on winning her over. And to some extent he must have achieved that. When Martha hugged the Doctor in relief as they met again after saving the boy she even saw a small smile appear below the vigilante's mask. She almost couldn't believe it and then Trish even invited them over and to her huge surprise the Doctor actually agreed. He was even pretty excited about it, while she expected him to want to get away from them as fast as possible.

"Well, after you mended Matt's broken bone I already felt a bit bad about my behaviour, but watching you was still unsettling." Trish swallows and even without seeing her eyes Martha knows that she still feels that way. "Even seeing you confront those criminals as if they couldn't really harm you felt extremely eery. It was just like Kilgrave."

From the expression the Doctor wears Martha can tell that it truly disturbs him what his appearance does to that woman. "Only the fact that they didn't follow your orders broke the spell finally. And just in time, I might add." Martha isn't sure what a bullet from a gun whould do to the Doctor, but she's glad they didn't find out this time. "And I'm not sure we would have found the boy in time without your help. So, thank you."

The Doctor smiles at her, but he still looks a bit haunted, like he's somehow responsible for whatever this creep who looked like him did. Just typical, the whole weight of the world on his shoulders again.

Martha thinks she is gonna have to distract them from that topic. "But it was also cool to see you guys in action a little. That was quite a show..." She isn't really used to having the kind of backup that can actually fight off a group of five attackers single handedly. That was quite a luxury for this little trip.

Taking the boy by the hand Martha ran as fast as she could, but it's never that easy, is it? The kidnappers tried to cut off their escape route and that's where the Devil of Hell's Kitchen came in to kick and flip their way free. He even held the door open for her with a big smile like a gentleman and not a guy in a weird getup. Then to both their surprise the boy threw his arms around his hero thanking him and making him blush awkwardly. That's when Martha decided that Matt should bring the boy home instead of her.

"Was he showing off again? He always does that, can't help it really." Trish smirks. "When he fights, he lets go of everything that holds him back in his everyday life. It's like he's fighting his own demons sometimes."

Knowing now what he was like in real life Martha has an idea what Trish wants to say with that, but they are both still a mystery to her. She still doesn't really understand whatever makes them do all this.

"But you also make a good team," the Doctor points out.

"We do. Wasn't always like this, though. I had to force him to train me. He didn't want to put me in danger, yadda yadda… He was going to get killed sooner rather than later doing all this alone, so I kept pushing."

"It's always better to have good company." The Doctor grins at Martha and she returns it easily, still feeling privileged that he asked her out of all people to come with him on his adventures. Although she didn't know what she was getting herself into and he doesn't even return her feelings the same way. Maybe he never will. He had told her that he traveled alone before they met, because he lost someone. But doing all this by himself wasn't good for him, or for anyone else really. She knows that he needs someone by his side which is going to make this a lot harder to say goodbye to. At some point she has to go back to her own life, though. She has to leave him and she just hopes he'll find someone new to take along.

Martha banishes all these thoughts as soon as they arrive at Trish's place and Matt also joins them some time later. When Trish opens the door for him she immediately pulls him into a kiss by his tie, making him almost drop the groceries in surprise. She then cups his face staring into his useless but nice and kind eyes. "Brought the kid to his parents?"

Leaving another peck on her cheek he smiles. "Safe and sound."

Matt walks around the kitchen counter then putting his ingredients for a big festive meal down. He gets to work on it with Trish's help, although from the way they are bickering, she's not much of a cook. But the new groceries don't have braille labels like the rest of Trish's kitchen, so he can use some assistance from her. They also refuse their guests' help which means Martha and the Doctor have to wait at their table uselessly.

That's the moment she realises: "I've never seen you stick around like this. Why here?" Why at a place where he had to feel uncomfortable, especially with Trish still acting a bit strange towards him. Martha even has the suspicion that the woman could try to poison him this way after all. But why save him then?

The Doctor also makes all her worries disappear waggling his eyebrows like he's really not concerned anymore. "Who says this meal isn't going to be adventurous?"

Then they just watch them cook for a bit. Trish now just sticks to giving Matt the ingredients and it looks like he has a very precise idea what amount he needs. Martha is also stunned again when his girlfriend addresses him as counselor. "Is he a lawyer...? How does that work with breaking the law all the time?"

"You find that harder to accept than the way he fights despite being blind?"

"Well... maybe. I'm good with weird. Complete contradictions, though..."

The Doctor chuckles. "To me you humans are all full of contradictions. I spend most of my life pointing them out to you."

"Do you know why they do it? Trish and Matt, I mean...?" Maybe the Doctor has an answer to it. He knows who they are after all. And he's quite good at reading people.

"Did you see the cross in his apartment? Matt's very Catholic I think and we've seen how far he's ready to go in his fight for justice." Going by the dark look on his face he still hasn't forgotten about the torture part. "He feels guilty about it, though. And I have this theory that his hearing is far better than mine. He knows when people lie, can probably tell by their heartbeat. My guess is, he kept hearing the crimes happening around the city and decided to do something about it one day..."

Martha looks at Matt and catches his little nod with Trish being unaware of their conversation. "And what about her...?"

"All signs of an abusive childhood. She was a victim and that's why there's no reluctance to use extreme violence against certain type of criminals." Okay, that's what Martha was thinking, too.

"Kilgrave?"

The Doctor considers that for a second. "I don't think so. I think that's more about Jessica..."

He's probably right about that. Just like he is right about the meal, of course. Sure, they had more exotic food on other planets, but Matt Murdock is one amazing chef. A man with maybe similarly enhanced senses would know that he would be good at that, of course. The Doctor even makes the Devil of Hell's Kitchen blush with all the praise of his culinary skills.

But somehow he still sticks to telling them stories without mentioning time travel or aliens and it can't be because he thinks they can't handle it, especially after Matt mentions his zombie ex-girlfriend who apparently died for him. It kills the mood for a couple of minutes, until Trish starts talking about Matt's best friend Foggy who sounds like he'd be the life of any party while his buddy apparently rather enjoys them quietly, if at all. Well, they would have to be very loud to him.

Martha also gets the opportunity to ask Trish about some celebrities she has met, most of which the Doctor has never heard of. They end up making a game out of it that Martha calls "creep or no creep", which Matt finds slightly offensive, so instead they start playing "prince or no prince" to the Doctor's annoyance. "Come on, there's so much to see and explore in the world for you guys. Why does it always get back to fairy tales and princes…?"

"You think lords are better, Doctor?" Martha winks and the ancient time lord pouts like a nine year old.

And finally, Trish - who's still a bit nervous around the man who looks like Kilgrave - asks the question that must have been bothering her all day, the one Martha also didn't get an answer to yet: "Doctor, how do you know our names…?"

He buys a little time using a napkin. "We share an… acquaintance. But I'm sorry, I just can't tell you who it is."

Matt frowns. "Is it secret agency stuff?"

"Yeah, exactly. That's it." Martha however knows that face the time traveler makes. It has something to do with their future and he can't tell them, because of his stupid rules. Don't interfere with established events, don't change the past. That's usually not a good sign.

"I'm just glad to see you're all well."

Suddenly Matt tilts his head like he's hearing something or someone. Then he looks alarmed and jumps up from his chair. "Jessica is outside."

The Doctor looks amazed at that. "How far exactly can you hear?"

"Doc, you've got to hide!" Trish then grabs his arm and pulls him away from the table to shove him into her room and then a cupboard with Martha's help.

But the alien doesn't want to hide. "Are you sure, this is really necessary? Can't you just tell her that I'm not-"

"NO, she'd think you ordered us to have dinner with you." Trish tries to push him in roughly. "You really don't understand how this looks and she'll want to kill you or she'd get a major PTSD attack. Both things, we're trying to avoid here."

Reluctantly, the Doctor obeys. When Martha and Trish step out of her room again, Jessica is already standing there asking Matt why there are more plates on the table than people they know. "And who are you?"

"I'm…" Martha is a bit surprised, to say the least. After everything she heard about Jessica and the way these people wanted to shield her from some emotional trauma, the angry black haired woman with a leather jacket is so not what she had expected to see.

"Can someone explain?"

Trish hurries to make something up. "Jessica, this is Martha. We've just had a talk on the radio about travel tips and we got along really well…."

"Bullshit. Who else is here?"

"There's nobody else, Jessica. The last plate is for you. Come on, have something." Matt pulls the chair back for her to sit, but Jessica still fixes him with a death glare.

"For a fucking lie detector you're a pathetic liar, Matt." Jessica growls and points at Trish: "You didn't even invite me. And you just came out of your room hiding someone in there."

"No, I was just showing Martha some clothes. She wanted to borrow something for an event…"

Martha nods slowly. "Right, I forgot to pack something fancy and-"

Jessica just storms into Trish's room opening one cupboard after the other - and she really has a lot of those, but that shouldn't be her concern right now. Trish did mention that Jessica does have special strength. If she punches someone with full force...

As she quickly gets to the door the Doctor is hiding behind Martha hopes that he was somehow able to pull one of his tricks. But, to her horror the door opens to a smiling Doctor who waves at the angry woman in front of him like she's not about to kill him.

"You!"


	4. Chapter 4: Different Faces

Martha jumps in front of the Doctor without thinking about it. "He's not who you think he is!"

"He's the Doctor," Jessica states in a surprisingly calm voice and Martha doesn't even register at first what this woman is saying.

"This is jus-" She stops confused by Jessica's lack of action and the fact that she doesn't look too concerned about the man's appearance either, as if she already knows... Oh, wait a second...

"You know him?" Why the hell didn't he just tell them all from the beginning?

"Is Jessica that acquaintance you mentioned earlier?", Matt now asks helpfully.

The Doctor is still staring at the woman while she shrugs almost nonchalantly. "Saw him a week ago when he dropped into by office with his weird spaceship that looks like a public toilet or something…"

"It's a police box," the Doctor provides uselessly, looking a bit annoyed now, because nobody insults his amazing ship - that never brings them where they want to go. Also, those police boxes don't even exist anywhere anymore… not in Britain and certainly not in the rest of the world. If people recognize that police box, it's because they have met the Doctor. So why insist on calling it that?

"Right. It's a police box. You said that last time, too." Jessica shakes her head like she still can't really believe any of this madness. "And then you told me I'd come here and find you right here in Trish's room. And here you are with that face again..."

The Doctor's eyes widen at that information. "You mean, I changed my appearance?"

"You don't remember?! That was just a week ago. I knocked you out, thought I killed you actually and then you just jumped up looking and acting like a different man asking me for help."

"Well, of course, I remember. Who wouldn't remember Jessica Jones?" The Doctor shrugs and he just stares at all the confused faces.

"Why didn't you just mention that she knows you?" Another good question from Matt, but the longer Martha follows their conversation the more she gets the impression that the Doctor doesn't really know what exactly went down between him and Jessica, because it hasn't happened to him yet.

He merely explains that his spaceship is bigger on the inside - a lot bigger actually - and that he is an alien who can change his face, if needed. He makes it sound like he did it because Jessica apparently tried to kill him, as if he can do it in case of an emergency and then change back.

Jessica still isn't happy with that explanation. "So, you know the future of a person..."

"You could say I tap into people's destiny sometimes. I know it sounds unbelievable, but I've got an idea what people's fate might be." That is, again, something he had told Martha, too. He said that he can sense these so called fixed points in time that can't be avoided and he knows when there is a fortune of possibilities as well. When things can still happen in various ways and aren't carved in stone.

"Okay…" Trish struggles to grasp what all this means. "Can we please sit down for this? I think this is going to be a longer conversation and I'm gonna need a drink for it."

Jessica still eyes the Doctor with apprehension. "Yeah… me too."

While the alien tries to explain to their new friends roughly what this strange encounter with Jessica had been about, without having a clue himself, Martha tries to come up with her own version of what it all means. He still doesn't exactly give them the tell-all edition of who he is and what his spaceship does. What it boils down to is this however: He can't just tell anyone about their future, because that might influence their decisions.

It's a lot to wrap your head around. Trish however is very keen on getting a hint of what might be in store for them while Matt looks like he wouldn't dare asking. As if he already doesn't expect to hear anything good. In the end the Doctor gives in a little bit and just tells them ominously to not give up on hope.

During the discussion Jessica has been pretty much silent and she doesn't seem to buy it all, Martha thinks. Maybe she did her own research over the past week and finally the Doctor decides to ask her a question: "What did I look like?"

Jessica sits back in her chair with her bottle of Whiskey and eyes him bitterly. "Not like a rapist."

"Right…" He's been looking anywhere else, but then those impossibly sad eyes land on Jessica and he says: "I'm so, so sorry."

Martha heard him say that before and she's still struck by how sincere he is about these things.

"It's not your fault." Jessica shakes her head with a frown, as if she's telling herself the same thing all the time.

"No… but I just wish I could do something to change it." The Doctor must have seen many tragedies in his long life, but one person's fate can still affect him somehow. As adamant as he is about this one rule they can't ever break, he's probably the one who wants to do it more than anything many times.

"If it helps: I think whenever I get a flashback of him now I'll try to think of you instead." Jessica swallows and looks away. But not before Martha sees the tears in her eyes. "He was never able to apologise like that."

Everyone gives Jessica some space after that intense exchange and finally the Doctor returns to Martha's side. She knows what's coming next. It's time to leave, time to say goodbye.

"I think we should get going again."

Martha smiles at everyone, feeling both relieved and a bit sad at the same time. "Thank you so much for your hospitality."

Trish is the first to hug her. "Take care of your... friend. And you're always welcome back here as well." To the Doctor she at least offers her hand and a warm smile. "Sorry for hitting you."

"I think I was lucky that that was all you did."

Matt is even gives the alien a hug as well. It's probably easier for him to warm up to the man, since he never saw his doppelganger. "Thanks again for helping us out with the kidnapping and for healing me with that thing." He points at the sonic screwdriver.

"You're welcome. You should really be more careful about keeping your bones intact though..."

The vigilante smiles. "Appreciate the concern, Doctor. But I know what I'm doing."

"Nobody is denying that." Martha grins at the Devil who was her very helpful backup in getting that boy to safety. She immediately finds herself in his embrace, thinking that Trish is a very lucky girl. Mostly. "Listen to him, Matt. He's usually right."

It's Jessica's turn to say goodbye then and the tension is still there. She shakes both their hands with a tight smile. "I don't think I want to see you like this again, no offence. But I'm glad to see you're alive. Wasn't so sure you would be…"

On their way back to the ship they stay silent, because that farewell is a bit difficult to shake off and Martha also isn't buying the Doctor's attempts to act all cheery again as they arrive at the TARDIS. "You know more than you admit. Is it about what's going to happen to them…? Are they going to die?"

The Doctor doesn't meet her eyes, instead he uses seemingly random switches on the controls. "We all die someday…"

"Well, you won't, at least not for a long time. Even if Jessica kills you, you'll keep going with that new face she saw…" At least, that's what he had told her. "Are we going to back to last week now?" She is a bit curious what that new Doctor will look like. Maybe it'll be easier to say goodbye to a new man.

He stares at nothing for a moment and then his features slowly turn back into the happy Doctor-expression she is used to. It just lacks the spark. "I don't think I want to go just yet. It's not like I have an unlimited amount of regenerations..."

That is actually news to Martha. She always considered him to be near invincible and close to immortal, from a human's perspective at least. And suddenly she remembers the fact that Jessica didn't even see her with the Doctor and it bothers her. Did Martha leave him or did something happen to her….? When is he going to come back to Hell's Kitchen? The woman also didn't mention anyone else traveling with him. Was he alone again?

"How many of those lives do you have left….?"

"Enough." But the obviously fake smile on his face gives her a different answer. Maybe after living for that long the idea of mortality is harder to accept than she expected. Is he scared of changing or of dying?

It's easier to act like everything is fine and slowly Martha is starting to accept that the Doctor doesn't want to talk about this. After pretending for a bit it slowly feels more and more genuine again. She even sees that good old twinkle in his eyes when he asks: "So, what do you think? Should we give Dzklvcf another try?"

* * *

 **A week ago (or a whole lot later for the Doctor):**

A strange foreign sound makes Jessica look up from her laptop and what she sees makes her think that the last glass might have been one too many. There is a strange blue box materialising in her office. It looks like a wooden phone booth or something…

The thing just stands there for a minute and she has no clue what to make of it. Should she be alarmed? Otherworldly stuff like this is rarely good, is it? Then with a screech the door opens slowly and a man stumbles out, hunched over as if he is in pain. Jessica stands up, ready to attack or help, whatever is required here. With one hand on her desk he keeps his body from falling to the ground. His fingers also seem to be glowing with a weird yellow light.

"You're not going to explode in my office, are you?" Maybe talking will make sense of what crazy shit is going on here. Since the man seems to be in pain he doesn't look like much of a threat, though. So, when he falls down she jumps into action, thinking this stranger might need her help.

She runs around her desk, still ready to defend herself in case he suddenly attacks, but she freezes in place when she finally sees his face, because she recognises it, even all distorted in agony: "Fucking hell…"

He struggles to open his eyes and look back at her, but it seems like even that itself must hurt too much. Good. Between clenched teeth he forces some unintelligible words out and she thinks that she should maybe snap his neck again, but nobody else can hear him like this. He can't harm anyone and since she was immune to his orders the last time she saw him, she feels safe watching him suffer like this. Even better: She enjoys it.

Then she starts to understand some of the words he keeps uttering, not that she cares: "Step away… please." He seems to repeat them as well, getting more and more agitated. It's almost like it was when they had him in that water tank where they could electrocute him. When she felt like she was in control and he was again somehow manipulating them, acting all… human.

As he struggles to get back to that box he crawled out of she kicks him away from it. No, she can't exactly let him flee again. Jessica steps in front of him and watches some more, until she realises that his pain isn't making her feel better after all. In fact it has the opposite effect. It makes her pity him and that makes her feel worse. And his mumbling changes as well: "I'm… I'm not…"

But he can't go on, too preoccupied with all that agony torturing him and in the end something feels different about him. Maybe it's the fact that he's begging, but Jessica decides she wants to end his suffering, so with one kick to his head she make the twitching and the moaning stop with immediate effect. The longer she stares at his lifeless form she notices more and more differences. He looks a bit younger she thinks and also his clothes are very different. Sure, he's still wearing a suit, but Kilgrave always liked the colour purple and there is none of it on him now. Also, the chucks seem very misplaced on him. But he can't be-

Jessica jumps when the yellow light is back, now engulfing him completely and getting stronger by the second. Was that why he told her to get away? Was he trying to warn her…?!

When her desk catches fire Jessica runs to the bathroom to get some water and she throws it on the flames, stopping them from spreading. She turns around to another strange man with a different face, more chin and less eyebrows, almost jumping on his feet next to her. He's still wearing the same clothes, so it must be the same guy, but somehow Jessica now realises that this freaky character might not be Kilgrave… He's just a man who's apparently very lucky that she didn't kill him for coming to her. If this is the universe's idea of a joke it's a very bad one.

"Who or what the fuck are you?"

He seems oddly relieved to still have legs and arms, but the longer hair irritates him for some reason.

"I'm a girl?!" His hand flies to his Adam's apple and he seems to be relieved to find one there. She probably should be focusing on the fact that this man looked like her tormentor a second ago, but she can't help being annoyed with that remark. "What's wrong about being a girl...?"

"No, no… there's nothing wrong with it," the weird man hurries to clarify. "I've just never been one before." Then he looks like he's seriously thinking about that for a moment. "Maybe I should try that one day. Could be fun. And I might not get mixed up with a guy like that again then…"

Jessica observes the guy while he keeps checking his features and noticing that he's apparently "still" not ginger. Some of that yellow energy is streaming from his hand now and he seems to realise that as well, in the same moment she does. "I think I'm not done cooking yet- Aaargh…" The man doubles over in pain again. Now his legs are glowing, making it difficult to walk she assumes. "Still the old legs then. Oookay… Do you mind helping me back into my spaceship before I burn your entire building down..?"

Is he talking about that blue box? For a spaceship that thing looks a bit small, but it's not like she ever saw one… Jessica has a lot of questions then, but she also remembers what that glowing energy did to her desk, so she decides to help him up after all.

"I'm the Doctor, by the way."

Okay, not the weirdest thing he said to her so far. "Why the fuck did you look like a psychopath then, only a minute ago?"

"Aaah… it's one of my little quirks, I guess." There's a goofy grin on his face now. "No time to explain. Also, I don't want to bore you with the same story twice and you'll find me in Trish's room in about a week again."

"Will you take this space loo to get there as well?"

"Oi! I'll have you know that that is a police box! I mean, of course, there are toilet facilities in there as well. Can't have my friends pee themselves-" There's another flash of pain visible in his expression, so he cuts off the rambling he was just launching into. "I'll tell you next time. But I'll be looking like him then, just so you know..."

No. Jessica might have accepted that this freak isn't Kilgrave, but seeing that face again… "I don't think so."

She opens the door and he insists he can take it from there shutting it after him, before she can get a glimpse of what is inside.

Then there's silence and Jessica stares at the closed door, not sure if she should go in and check on the guy. She did kick his head in because she mistook him for someone else. Maybe she could have killed him with that even. The least she could do is make sure that he gets away safely, she thinks. But before she can make up her mind the entire box starts to shake. It gets worse and worse and suddenly the door opens a bit again, yellow light streaming out of the slit and the Doctor's head pops out, messy hair all over the place.

"Thanks for your help. And don't worry." She's not worried. "I just have to figure out my new kinks now. See you in a week!"

He waves and then disappears again, before the box starts rumbling as if he is fighting some dragon in there. Jessica tries to open the door, but it's locked and then the whole thing slowly fades away with the same sound she heard when it came.

Jessica stares at the place it's been standing for a minute. Why the fuck did she help that weirdo?! She doesn't even recall him ordering her to do so or something like that.

Well, if anyone else has seen that guy or his weird excuse of a "spaceship", she'll probably be able to find out about it online and she has a week to decide if she should do something about him…

* * *

 _Note: I could get back to this at some point, if someone is interested. :)_

 _Yip, the Eleventh Doctor thought he was a girl for a second. I even checked again to make sure that I was remembering that correctly._

 _And in case any Whovians have read this: Imagine the Doctor in my version of events thinking that he won't regenerate until he goes to Jessica and then realising that he has to see her on his farewell tour. She is the last one he visits and her reaction to his face also makes it easier to move on for him… :) After that he of course still crashes the TARDIS in Amy Pond's garden..._

 _If you're interested to know more about Matt, Trish & Jessica, I have written two 30 chapter stories with them and started a new one ("Hope") set after this.. Would be cool, if you'd check them out, but ignore all the spam reviews that buried the real ones..._

 _A review of this story would be great. Even if it's just one word. :)_


	5. Chapter 5: Friends Like These (Part 1)

What would he do without her, really? Without a companion the Doctor is completely lost. If the adventurous alien can't show anyone the right way or the wonders of the universe, Donna doesn't know what he'd become. Knowing that she had turned down his offer to travel with him the first time she met him. She had to urge him to pick someone else, though. After he was gone, probably in another world, another time, it dawned on her that she passed on her one opportunity to do something different with her life. She had lost her job, her wedding didn't happen (They even had the reception without her!) and later her father also died. After that none of that scary stuff she had seen with the mad alien mattered and she realised that she had made a huge mistake. Donna was ready to jump into a life of adventure and insanity. In fact she started to look for it. For him.

Sure, she did not expect her guide through time and space to bet her life away with his own, but they're trying to save a lot of people from a life of something suspiciously close to slavery, so she's gonna have to yell at him about it later.

While making her way through Hell's Kitchen to get help Donna thinks back to the time she searched for him after their first encounter. She coincidentally found the Doctor again (well... you just have to follow the smell of trouble and alien invasions…). She remembers how happy she was to maybe get this second chance to hop on this spaceship, how much fun it was to solve a mystery together. A temp from Chiswick saving the world! He was also in a much better mood this time around and she soon learned that his enthusiasm can be quite intoxicating. And so she came along when he finally asked her again, quickly forming a strange earthgirl-spaceman-friendship with him while getting used to his little quirks, as well as the tragedy and danger this sort of life entails.

Donna knew challenging the Gambler in Hell's Kitchen, a criminal who got hold of some alien technologies, wouldn't be as easy as beating him in a game of chess. She had not however expected the Doctor to lose against a mere human. He is a bit of a genius after all. Well, mostly. He still needs a human to point out the most basic things that he tends to miss… (Also, what's up with those names? The Gambler, the Doctor... apparently there was also some maniac who calls himself the Master. They all sound like cartoons to be honest.)

"You totally lost on purpose, didn't you?", Donna asked him when she had one last opportunity to talk to him, in that creepy gambling club.

"I just lost one game. We're doing a rematch, so don't worry!" Of course, she worries and she's pretty sure he does, too. He just doesn't want his friends to panic, but his flippant attitude can turn into an angry rant faster than it takes him to travel across centuries (which is very fast by the way). "And in the meantime, I can find out how he gets everyone to dance to his tunes. Literally if he wants to."

The club did have dancers and other performers entertaining the guests and Donna also spotted a missing person they were looking for working for the Gambler, sporting a creepy little smile that sure hints at something eery they gotta stop. "Hopefully there's no mind control involved," she then caught the Doctor mumbling, probably also thinking of what they witnessed so far. "But I guess then I wouldn't still be able to walk and talk freely…"

"Mind control?", Donna's eyes widened at the thought. It was bad enough that the rematch was supposed to be in the ring instead of on the chess board and she's pretty sure the thin guy she's travelling with isn't much of a boxer. Although, he was eager to point out that the first thing he did in this body was winning a sword fight - which also made him lose a hand… that regrew immediately. (And apparently that's not trick he can usually do. He was just still regenerating, so his body was still new.) So, yeah, no chance he was winning with anything other than his wit.

Anyway… He was not gonna fight himself, arguing that if the Gambler was choosing the nature of the game he could choose himself who would be "playing" for him.

"Don't worry, I'm confident that everything will be fine."

"You're always confident." Donna snapped, knowing fully well that he lost others who travelled with him. But she was not gonna point that out, because that would be cruel.

"Donna, it'll be fine. We'll win this!", he exclaimed with a little grin and she couldn't help grinning back despite herself.

"You better. Because otherwise you're losing me and then we'll both have to work for that slimy bastard...!" Of course he had to bet something, raise the stakes to get his rematch and human life apparently was the only currency this particular villain dealt in. It would have been nice to ask her first, though... even if she would have agreed with his plan anyway.

"If you can't find and convince my friend to help out within the three hours we're given, I'll be fighting myself and you're gonna promise that you'll go back to the TARDIS then and let my ship get you home safe and sound." To stress his request the Doctor grabbed her arm and his big eyes suddenly looked way too serious. So, yeah, both of them knew he wouldn't win this if he had to go into the ring himself. She figured.

"You can bet your precious space ship that I'll leave with her if it turns out you managed to lose me in a stupid bet…" Donna was mad enough that she sounded like she meant it. Which, of course, she didn't. If this did not work she was going to find a different way. She'd get UNIT, or maybe even Torchwood to get the Doctor out of this mess, if it was the last thing she did. Not only because she knew from experience that the world would be doomed without him, but also because she couldn't go back to being plain old Donna Noble anymore. She is better with her best friend around.

However, she couldn't tell him that, so instead she assured him that she'd make a run for it, which made him smile in relief. "But I know that you'll get him here. You're brilliant, Donna. And if he hesitates: just tell him about the children…"

And that's how he has sent her away to get this lawyer's help. Finally arriving at the door of his firm with two hours still left, Donna starts to question how much a man who fights battles in court would be able to achieve in a ring, but trusting the Doctor she takes a deep breath and knocks. She hears some voices inside, footsteps not hurrying nearly as much as she'd like them to and when the door opens she comes face to face with a blond guy in a nice suit welcoming her with a warm smile.

"Hello! How can we help you here at Nelson & Murdock, Miss…?" On second glance he looks a little suspicious, but still very friendly.

"Noble, Donna Noble…" The secretary looks bewildered from her desk and knowing what it's like to work in that position for a firm that's hiding big dark - potentially world-ending - secrets Donna is already sure that, yep, this is no ordinary law firm. There must be something strange with it, especially if these people know a certain alien. So, could this guy in front of her already be the right one? He looks like he may be able to take the Doctor in a fight. But that's not saying much. She certainly wouldn't be betting anyone's life on him beating anyone up. "I'm looking for a man named Matt Murdock."

There's a nervous little frown curling his brows and he rubs his neck as if he's trying to come up with some kind of excuse. "Oh, that is my law partner. He's a little busy at the moment…" The man seems rather sweet and the fact that he as a partner in this firm is actually opening the door for her explains the secretary's irritated reaction, too. It also makes him instantly likable. Of course, he could just be trying to hide something shady, but maybe he has good reasons for it. "Is there anything I can help you with? My name is Franklin Nelson."

Donna shakes his outstretched hand and then her head. "I'm afraid that I'll have to talk to Mr. Murdock and it's very urgent. Can you tell him that the Doctor has gotten himself into a bit of a pickle that he can't get out of without his help and that-" They both turn towards the door that they just heard open to find a man with sunglasses peek out leaning against the doorframe.

"Matt!", Nelson squeaks funnily and steps in front of the man who's probably his colleague blocking Donna's view of the guy at the door. She still notices that his suit is rumpled as if he had slept in it and even the secretary looks a little worried at the sight of him. Is this Mr. Murdock then? He might just have been called by the right name, his appearance however makes her doubt that he'd be of much use in this particular situation, at least not right now. Not good.

When he starts speaking his voice sounds soft but firm: "Mel, could you… could you please make us all a coffee? I'm a little tired…"

"Of course!" The secretary jumps up immediately to act on the gentle request and when she leaves she closes the door behind her, knowing that her bosses need to discuss something delicate with their potential new client. She's good at her job, Donna decides. If she needs to know more about these guys she sure knows who to ask...

As soon as they're alone Nelson hisses: "Matt, you can't-"

"Maybe the Doctor just needs a lawyer?" Raising his eyebrows Murdock looks at Donna who's getting a little annoyed about the glasses. Does he have a hangover or something...?

Reluctantly, she answers his question: "I'm afraid a lawyer won't do..." Which doesn't seem to surprise him, but that makes sense if he knows the Doctor somehow. He sighs and nods which makes it seem like maybe it's Nelson she'll need to convince. She just doesn't know how. "I only have two hours left to save him. If you can't, I can try to contact someone else. But I already wasted so much time coming here. I think it'll be too late then."

Thankfully that seems to be the right approach. "We'll find a way to help. I'm Matt Murdock." The lawyer offers his hand that she takes gratefully. She'll take whatever she can get, to be honest. "Now tell me what happened."

They both take in Donna's tale about the Gambler with concern on their faces. Even with the glasses Murdock looks like he wants to punch the man responsible for making children beg on the streets to probably work off their debts.

When she's done explaining the situation a very concerned Nelson puts a hand on the other man's shoulder. "We could ask Jessica to take this…"

His friend - they're definitely close - shakes his head stubbornly. "He looks like Kilgrave. I can't involve Jessica."

"Didn't you say he can change his face…?"

Technically that's true. "He changes his appearance and personality when he's about to die," Donna points out. "I'm not gonna let that happen, if there's something else we can do about it. He's my best friend…!"

Suddenly Nelson looks very sympathetic, before he addresses Murdock again. "But you're hurt…"

Why does it seem like the guy with the glasses wincing at every movement he makes is almost begging for approval to go with her? "I have to go, Fog..." Then after a moment he adds hurriedly; "The Doctor, em, he can heal broken bones...!"

"Oh, that he can do." Donna assures Nelson with a smile.

"Really…?", he takes in the now more confident smirk on his friend's face and Donna can see his determination to oppose this crumble. "Fine… I guess, that's actually not so bad then." He sighs and turns to Donna. "You've come to the right place."

When the door opens Mel enters with three cups of coffee. She puts the tablet on her desk and helps Murdock find his one which finally fills the last piece of the puzzle and Donna gapes at him in understanding. "You're… you're blind! You've got to be kidding me….!"

That makes the friendly lawyer cough while drinking. "Oh, he will! Prepare yourself for an unlimited pool of blind jokes…" Now the men are both chuckling, to Donna's astonishment, although she can tell that Nelson still isn't too happy about this. And then he whispers in a tone that doesn't allow any arguments: "But Matty, you're not going without me. I'll be watching and I'll throw the damn towel if I think you're going too far." Whatever that means.

"You won't have to. I'll see to it." Donna groans as the two start chuckling again. She should have known that the Doctor's friends would be insane. Blond and blind are certainly going to be the death of her.

Well, she's curious to find out how exactly Murdock's planning to win, but not in front of the secretary, so they all quietly sip their coffee after they tell Mel to cancel all appointments for the day.

"Mmmh…" Nelson shuts his eyes and then looks at his partner before whispering conspiratorially: "Tastes better, but I still miss the old one."

While their secretary is busy with something on her computer Murdock nods. "Me too." He then turns to Donna expectantly. "Now tell us where we'll find that crazy Doctor of yours."


	6. Chapter 6: Friends Like These (Part 2)

While Nelson is driving them Donna and Matt share stories about their interactions with the Doctor and she quickly learns that he has a lot of respect for the mad alien, despite them certainly disagreeing on their methods. Matt apparently is of the opinion that he has to use violence against his enemies which she can imagine made them at odds with each other initially. "I'm already looking forward to meet the guy", his partner comments, suddenly more cheerful about this little trip. "Sounds like he should be a good influence."

That appears to be a sour topic between the two and Donna's pretty sure that Murdock is rolling his eyes behind the glasses. Which brings her to the elephant in the car... "By the way, how does that work? Are you just pretending to be blind?" That would be an awful thing to do, actually.

"I really am blind, but I have some abilities that make up for it."

"Some people would call them superpowers," his friend quips.

"I wouldn't say that there's anything super about hearing people whisper behind your back or smelling everything that's been tossed in the garbage over several blocks."

Alright, that doesn't sound like much fun. "Okay, I can see how you can move around more freely, but-"

"I was trained. I can use my senses to know where my opponents are and guess what they're about to do much better than most people who can see. And I know exactly where to hit." Seeing the straight line his mouth makes this is all the information she's gonna get here.

Nelson then fills the uncomfortable silence. "I guess, New Yorkers have gotten more used to weird stuff than the people in England, but since you're travelling with the Doctor-"

"Oi! I'll have you know that we've had plenty of failed invasions in London, before you even knew aliens existed!" They don't have to know that she hadn't cared enough to even acknowledge their existence before she met one in person. She was too focused on her own life to worry about Daleks and stuff. Ignorance can be bliss, until it isn't.

"Oh, you've had aliens trying to take over London as well?"

"Foggy..."

"Of course you haven't heard of that." Donna bites her tongue, before saying 'typical Americans'. It's not like she's any better.

However, Murdock is apparently 'looking' right through her. "Let's say, that we all care a little more about the stuff that's closer to home. It's not that I don't worry about what happens in the rest of the world, but all I can do is try and look after my neighbourhood. I know that there isn't much I can do beyond Hell's Kitchen."

"And thank god for that," mumbles his friend while he sighs.

After a couple of minutes the tension is gone again and they instead focus on the problem ahead.

It takes almost an hour to drive into the parking lot of the Gambler's club and before leaving the car the blind man catches Donna's wrist (which he shouldn't be able to do) and asks her for the scarf she took from the wardrobe in the TARDIS against the rather cold weather. "What for?"

"I'd like to cover my face," he explains. "Hide my identity.

That makes sense, actually. "Yeah, sure." She takes it off and watches as the man leaves his glasses in the car and quickly ties the scarf over his unfocused eyes as if he's done it a million times. If he made her uncomfortable before that blindfold makes him look downright sinister.

The entrance isn't easy to find. It's actually disguised by some alien technology, so it can only be seen when you stand on a particular spot. Also, this time the door is locked which is cheating, isn't it? Was the Gambler tricking her into leaving? But then he wouldn't win her to work for him either. She still has 20 minutes to deliver this injured blind man to fight for the Doctor. So she angrily knocks on the door. "Hey! Open up! I'm not too late yet!"

After a minute the guy with the blindfold stops her with a hand on her arm. "Someone's coming…"

And sure enough a second later they hear a deep voice growling: "Password?"

What password?! There was nothing like that when she first entered. "I don't know. But I've been in there earlier and I was told to bring-"

"We're closed. Password?"

Donna looks at the two lawyers in desperation and before she can stop him, Murdock suddenly runs to kick the door with full force, but apparently all this achieves is another injury to his leg. She probably should have told him that it would be like kicking the wall.

"Um… password?", the voice behind the door sounds annoyed now, just like Nelson looks while he shakes his head in disapproval.

"You done?", the lawyer says while watching his friend walk back, limping a little more than before.

"This usually works," Murdock shrugs with a sheepish smile. This is probably the kind of behaviour that Nelson called "going too far".

Couldn't the Doctor have given her the sonic screwdriver to open the door? It's also not a boost of confidence if his chosen one is crippled before they're inside, even if he can get healed a little in there.

"Try Flow Dab." Murdock quickly spins around in attack mode facing a young woman who suddenly appears next to him to say those three words. And yeah, what the hell?! There is nothing around. No soul on the entire parking lot. How long has she been standing there without anyone noticing? "Trust me, you have to hurry and save the Doctor…"

"Password…..?" The guy behind the door is slowly losing his patience and Donna takes in their new company, trying to determine if she looks dangerous. When nothing happens the woman makes a small nod towards the door, and there's an anxiety in her eyes that reminds Donna that she doesn't have all the time in the world. Well, what's the harm in trying? "Is it Flow Dab?" She can probably ask later where the stranger came from.

There's a moment of intense silence and then suddenly the door creeps open to reveal a grumpy guy in a tracksuit. "Alright. Get in."

When Donna turns back towards the woman who helped them she sees Murdock jump in front of his friend to shield him against a whole lot of nothing. "Where is she?"

The blond lawyer however seems even more concerned about his friend who still seems a little shaken by that mysterious encounter. "Buddy, she didn't startle you, did she?!"

"I… um…" The man in question tilts his head. "I just didn't hear where she was coming from… Or where she went..." Huh... and she thought New Yorkers were used to the weird. Donna keeps that thought to herself and just smirks to herself.

"I'm thinking you've got a little more than just your bones broken, my friend," Nelson observes. "Maybe I should drag you back home...?"

Donna almost agrees. This really looks like the most hopeless rescue attempt ever and maybe she should just run and come back with a better one. But then the blind lawyer wordlessly limps into the club and she knows it's now or never.

Inside they are led through a dark hallway until they reach a huge hall with a box ring in the middle and a small crowd cheering at their entrance. She can see the Gambler's surprise as they enter, confirming to her that, yes, having them not come in time was his way of making sure he wins. The middle aged criminal with short combed back hair and cold eyes has a group of bodyguards gathered around him now.

When the Doctor's eyes fall on Matt Murdock, as they all walk - more or less - towards him and the Gambler, he frowns. Using the screwdriver to can him he alien takes in the man's state with an alarming look of panic. "What the hell happened to you?!"

The guy in question actually laughs and shrugs. "Well, you know me…"

"When did you lose your eyesight?" Since the lawyer told her quite a bit about their first meeting, Donna knows that the Doctor was aware of this. He must be bluffing then for some reason. Maybe to make his enemy feel more confident about winning. "Never mind. You can't fight like this." Turning on his heel to face the Gambler her clever friend then declares: "Alright, I guess I'll have to do it myself after all."

That makes their criminal host chuckle, now even more sure that this will be a piece of cake and falling for the trap. "No, no, no. I gave you those three hours to get this guy. You chose him. There's no way around it. He's fighting."

"That's not fair!", whines the Doctor. And really? He's usually better at arguing, which is another indication that this was his plan all along somehow.

"I've been informed that it's actually intergalactical gambling law, so… Bad luck, I guess." His victorious grin is almost predatory. "Now, I'll give you a fighting chance, because I am fair and this is just a little too easy. I'll make him go up against my second best fighter. Torin." Next to the ring a huge door opens and out comes a guy who looks like a fairytale giant. Donna checks out the blind man's reaction, but he doesn't look too concerned, even after he just lost a fight against a couple of stones… Huh.

"Now, I know your deepest desire, time lord. If your guy wins, then you can both go, of course. But this is double or nothing, so I'll also put some more on the table."

The Doctor now raises his chin in defiance as the man goes on. "If he wins: I'll free everyone working for me and let them go. You want to shake on it?" There's a little glow around the Gambler's hand inviting the Doctor to take the chance. But the little glint in the man's eyes, tells Donna that he has their opponent exactly where he wants him this time. Grabbing the offered hand he hisses as the light jumps over to his body, but he doesn't let go. "If the gambling society finds out you're playing dirty…" A sudden change in the mood can be felt and one glance from the Gambler at the guards immediately makes them jump into motion to restrain the Doctor and all his friends.

"How dare you accuse me of cheating!"

"Hold on," the alien yells "I informed them already that I'd be investigating this place and if they don't hear from me in one earth hour they're going to look into you. They'll shut this place down and arrest you."

Everyone stops suddenly and the Gambler doesn't seem sure if he can risk an inspection like this. "Now let me speak to my champion in private."

"Alright," the Gambler basically spits out. "He isn't gonna win this anyway." The man then releases his hand from the Doctor's grip and nods towards Torin saying: "You have to kill him."

Ignoring that the Doctor quickly hugs Donna and greets the man she brought with her, shaking his hand to avoid his injuries. "Didn't I tell you not to get your bones broken so much?", the Doctor distreetly uses his screwdriver to heal Murdock's arm, leg and maybe also his ribs.

"You also told me that you're against violence. Yet here we are. At a fight." His lips are forming a way to smug little grin.

"Yeah, I recognise that Hell's Kitchen is more your turf," the Doctor acknoledges with a shrug. "I think, we might be able to solve this together without anyone else getting hurt, though."

"Let's try," the lawyer smirks, while now moving his arm in a way that made him wince in pain earlier and starting a little exercise. His friend stares at it in wonder and then at the screwdriver before turning to the Doctor: "Is there any way to get one of these thingies?"

The alien actually lights up at that idea: "Oh, I could build one for you with the only option to heal bones. But don't give it to your friend. I don't want him to use it to torture anyone…"

"Hey!", the man fighting for him protests mildly while stretching. "I wouldn't… I mean, if I could heal them when I've got the information I need…" He knows he isn't helping his case with that. "Damn… okay, I'll shut up now."

Yeah, Donna can see the problem with that attitude and Nelson also sighs. "I'd definitely only use it to heal him," he promises, making his future patient swear in frustration.

"Matt, I'm only trying to help. You know how tempting this could be when you're desperate. And if you did it once you'll do it again. I don't want you to become that man..."

"Yeah, you're right." Donna can see the grown man blush like a school boy who just got lectured while Nelson looks mighty impressed with that reasoning.

"Trust me. I know what I'm talking about. I lost someone and there were times when I thought how easy it would be to tear a hole in the universe and get her back. But that would be the end of everything."

The other man frowns at the time lord's words. "Not Martha…?"

"No. That was before her."

Donna can still see it in the Doctor's eyes. The storm that was there when they first met, that he's been trying to lock away. And she can see understanding in the younger man's eyes, too. It seems that guy also knows a thing or two about loss.

"Martha is fine by the way. I got to know her recently," Donna informs him, determined to lighten the mood. "She's engaged!" Someone - maybe both of them - needed a reminder that things don't have to be so depressing all the time.

"I'm glad to hear that." A genuine smile appears on his face under the blindfold, just as they hear a bell and a commentator starting to announce the fight. "We've got a duel tonight: The unbeaten Torin against a new challenger who appears to be... wearing a blindfold….!" The attention of the room is increasing quickly after that.

Taking in a deep breath Donna watches as the lawyer rolls his head and finishes his quick warm-up. "Good luck, Mr. Murdock, and thanks for trying to save all of us."

He shrugs. "It's what I do. And call me Matt, please."

The nervous guy beside her also offers his first name then: "And I'm Foggy."

"Donna," she says shaking both their hands with a big grin, before she watches Matt do the sign of a cross and enter the ring.

The Doctor is joining her and Foggy in the front row of the audience where they are waiting for the start sign. "You see that alien sitting next to the Gambler?" Searching with her eyes they quickly fall on a greenish little furball resting on the table. "That's a Carooli. They are telepaths sensing people's biggest desires. Usually they travel with some sort of artists or they are used for therapy as well. They try to stay away from wannabe prophets or gambling. But I think she's forced to work here like all the others."

"She?", Foggy points at the creature that is just pulled out of a slumber when Matt's being introduced to the crowd.

"You think that's how he gets everyone under his influence?"

"It's one aspect…", they all watch as the Carooli crawls to the edge of the table on her six legs, where she slumps down, resting her head on her two biggest feet as if they were hands. "I think we need to win this before this one figures out our guy's weakness."

"You mean, beyond the obvious one of him being blind?"

"Oh, trust me: that is not a weakness," the Doctor waggles his eyebrows which makes Foggy release a strange little laugh. When the start of the fight is announced Donna observes very closely what's going on in the ring, curious to find out how Matt's other senses can at least make up for his missing eyesight.

It doesn't take long to see Matt receive a first blow on the nose. "Well, this doesn't start off well."

"Wait and watch."

But it doesn't really get better, because not knowing where his enemy is standing, Matt's punches go nowhere, while Torin appears to be playing with him. He taunts his blind opponent, punishing him every time he tries his luck. Soon Matt is bleeding seriously and Foggy doesn't like what he's seeing either. "Come on, buddy…. What are you doing….?"

"Doctor, this is a mistake. We should get him out of there and we all just make a run for it…", Donna knows these lawyers for barely two hours, but this guy doesn't deserve to suffer like this just so the Doctor can pull off one of his tricks.

"We can't. Keep watching…"

No, she can't. How can she just watch a blind man get beaten up for their sake?! Donna instead turns to Foggy who's also barely able to look at his friend taking one hit after another, flinching and covering his eyes with his hands. "Why aren't you throwing the towel?", she asks when she meets his eyes.

"I know he'll win. It's just..." he takes another peak between his fingers and makes a gasp. "Ugh... I guess he's going for authenticity. Bloody masochist."

Watching his friend's reactions Donna can guess that Matt keeps being on the receiving end of these punches, until suddenly there's a surprised cheer from the audience that's mostly rooting for the underdog and Foggy jumps up throwing his fist in the air and yelling: "That's more like it!"

When she dares to look again Donna can see both of them lying on the floor. There's a wicked smile on Matt's lips. For a second it even looks like he's winking. The first round is over after that, leaving Donna with the impression, that maybe their guy is holding back intentionally.

"Doctor, why was the Gambler's hand glowing when you shook it?" The criminal looks in their direction with a smug grin.

"It's a way of making a binding contract that isn't written," her travel guide explains. "It forces everyone to go through with what they agreed to. You feel a sharp pain in your head if you back out, somehow. That's why it's technically not a crime, because you can't be forced to do something you didn't agree to. Some cultures, though, say that it's barbaric and they're right. That's why most wouldn't agree to a deal like that."

Apart from this crazy guy apparently. "So, we can't actually prove that he did anything wrong…? What about the green furball? What's her role in this? Is it legal to use her?"

"Well, if your bet means something to you, the psychic energy from this handshake is stronger and not going through with the deal would hurt a lot more…" His eyes widen then, like they always do when he figures something out. "Oh Donna, you're brilliant, as usual! It finds the deepest desires of everyone coming in here…"

"... which explains all the workers with pained expressions in this place," Donna assumes.

"Exactly. It also explains how he got the Carooli to help. They are basically addicted to cheese and when they see the object of their desire they can't think straight. That's how the furry chessmasters - their type of telepathy makes them anticipate their opponents actions easily - suddenly even forget how a pawn moves. The Carooli probably came in here on its travels to defeat the Gambler and then someone must have offered cheese to her."

"So, if he loses and we try to leave, we'll get some agonising headache?!", Donna realises suddenly. "You wanted to get everyone free and that's what he offered..."

"I would get a headache. I can deal with it."

At the start of the second round Torin acts like Matt's attack earlier was nothing, but when he's back on his feet she can tell that he's swaying a little. Matt on the other hand moves like he's just getting started despite the blood running down his face. He takes two more hits and starts laughing then which in turn amuses the tall guy who's so sure of his victory that he crouches down a little to make fun of the smaller blind guy. "Dude, you're losing. What's so funny about-"

Donna only catches a glimpse of Matt's right hook that knocks his opponent straight out. The crowd is going crazy all of a sudden and the Gambler's jaw drops while Foggy releases a big sigh of relief and the Doctor just smirks. Okay, maybe Torin shouldn't have underestimated Matt, or maybe he shouldn't have teased him, letting him know exactly where he's standing.

"So, we won!" The Doctor announces with a grin.

"Hold on… No, no, no… The fight isn't over."

"So, start counting down from 10. Torin isn't gonna get up anytime soon."

"The fight isn't over until one of them is dead."

Donna sees Matt shake his head exactly as Doctor furiously starts to protest. "That wasn't the bet we agreed on. We're not killing anyone. We're fighting for their freedom. And that includes Torin."


	7. Chapter 7: Friends Like These (Part 3)

NOTE: I should maybe mention before this chapter, that a lot happened in Matt's life between this story and "Listen to Him" (some of it makes up the plot of "Hope"), but this is still a separate plot and there's no need to read anything else, since it is all told from Donna's point of view. :)

* * *

There's an eery sense of excitement around the ring and Donna thinks that many people in the audience are less shocked by this turn of events and more intrigued which says a lot about this crowd. It seems that some are even eagerly waiting for Torin to get killed which will probably make the Gambler a lot of money, because most people will have bet on the tall guy who never lost a fight against the strange man with the blindfold. Can this actually turn out to be a win for him even if he loses his workers?

As they discuss the stalemate amongst themselves their opponent appears to be in a suspiciously good mood.

"Well, you should have mentioned before that you wouldn't kill anyone… This isn't over until one of them is dead." Donna hears the Doctor mumble angrily beside her. "Or… we could do another rematch."

At that prospect, Foggy makes a frustrated noise. He probably thought that this was over.

Shouldn't fights to the death be illegal anyway, even in Hell's Kitchen? The world must have gone insane if it isn't. But Donna guesses that since this place is almost impossible to find if you don't know where it is, the arm of the law probably can't reach it. The people who are forced to work here must be afraid to tell anyone about it. Or maybe they feel a pain in the head when they think about doing just that...?

"We're not doing a rematch!", the Doctor growls. "He won this fair and square. You're cheating!"

"I'm not asking you, time lord. But what about your champion here…" The Gambler gestures at the man standing beside the ring, who does look a little tired, although this fight didn't look like much of a challenge to him. Not really. Still, he was a little messed up before they came here.

"He's not gonna risk children staying under your control."

Donna watches as Matt tilts up his chin in defiance. "He's right. I'm not."

"We could maybe let the audience decide how we should settle this." The Gambler raises his voice. "Do you want another duel?!" This earns him a lot of boos, but more cheers from the spectators, who quickly start to chant "One more duel!" over and over.

"You do realise that if you let him get away with this, that he can change any bet you make with him, until the outcome is serving his interests?" The Doctor shakes his head at these people, knowing that most of them won't even hear him over all the noise.

"We can get the cops here," Matt tries to threaten, only receiving hysterical laughter in response and guns pointed at his head. This action, however, also displeases the crowd that wants to see him in another fight. Of course they want to see the mysterious new guy fight in particular.

Before things can escalate further, the Gambler holds up his hands in a sign of surrender. "Alright, alright. Let's say, whether you win or lose, I accept your win against Torin, I'll free all my workers of their obligations towards me, but I get one more fight and if you lose this one, dead or alive, you're mine."

Donna can see Foggy pale at the last two words and mumble: "Matty, don't be stupid...!" The Doctor's look darkens so much it seems like the light in the entire building got dimmed while the man in question, with only half his face visible, at least seems to hesitate.

"What if I tell you that I have an idea how you could get your eyesight back?"

That offer makes her best friend actually laugh out loud. "That's a lie and he knows it. He does NOT owe you another round and if people hear about this noone in their right mind would come back here to bet against you."

Donna then watches as the Carooli climbs on the Gambler's shoulder and whispers something in his ear making a satisfied smile spread on the creeps face. "Maybe there's something else I could offer you. I hear you're missing someone important to you… If you win against my best fighter - and you don't have to kill him - I can ask around and see what I can dig up… Of course, if you lose... You're gonna have to fight for me."

From the way that Matt tenses up and the Doctor shares a concerned glance with her, Donna can tell that this development is not good and apparently it also gives the Carooli more clues to pass on, whispering something in the Gamblers ear that makes his smug grin widen even more.

When she turns to Foggy she can see the panic in his eyes. "He's not gonna do this, is he?" She didn't lead this man into a trap to become a slave, did she?!

"I don't know…" His worried gaze meets her own. "This past year he did some desperate things. But… how does this guy know about…?"

"I might even be able to tell you who took your daughter."

Donna can feel her own heart beat faster at this revelation while she watches a now clearly shocked Matt fight an internal battle this time while the Doctor is reminding him that the man can't be trusted. "Don't listen to him. It's all lies...!"

Matt shakes his head. "But it's not, Doctor. He's not lying, I can tell."

"All he's offering is a guess to the best of his knowledge," the alien insists. "You can't…"

But Matt is already clenching his fists. "I can win. I'm not betting anyone else. Just… just me. If he knows about her, maybe he can..."

Donna is surprised to find Matt's friend speechless. He just shakes his head like this is an argument he knows he can't win, while the man who offered the new bet now looks very confident.

"You know what he could do if he wins you?! If you have to work for him? You will help him build an empire. Every time you don't follow his orders you'll get agonising headaches...!"

Now the Gambler is smirking knowingly. "I don't think the Doctor will help you find your daughter."

Matt is losing the battle inside his mind. He closes his eyes for what looks like a silent prayer. Then he nods slowly. "I'll have to try. I'll do it. If she's still alive..."

What would she do? Of course he thinks he has to try. If it really is about his daughter... Donna can feel for the guy, but she also knows that this is not gonna go well. They have to do something.

The Doctor shakes his head in frustration and takes out the sonic screwdriver, making the Gambler stop him. "No more healing! You think I didn't notice you did that before? This is a rematch with him only. You can't interfere. It's against the rules." His guards suddenly appear by their sides. "I'll not hesitate to lock you and your friend up if you try to meddle."

And apparently this time the Doctor doesn't have any arguments. It's clear that whatever warning he can utter it won't help them in the near future. Of course if those guards aren't payed, their boss might have to free them after this fight anyway. However Donna sees the crowd make so many bets for this fight, he might just be able to hire new ones afterwards. So what exactly did they achieve?!

Putting his hand on Matt's shoulder the Doctor looks at him with sorrow in his eyes. "You better let the Devil out this time. Good luck."

Again there's this weird glow when Matt touches the Gambler's hand and Donna stares at it thinking that she has caused this. Not being able to see the strange light, the man who just offered himself for a bet tilts his head and moves his fingers as the light disappears.

Beside her his friend curses quietly. "Foggy, I'm sorry, I got you here…"

"It's not your fault. We wanted to help. At least you'll be able to go…" Then a door opens and out comes Matt's opponent, a guy with a hoody and blonde curls appearing under it. He's walking in like he's really pumped for this, but there's something in his step that also looks a little disoriented, like an animal trying to make sense of new surroundings. When he finally looks up at them the lawyer beside her gasps in surprise.

"Oh crap. That's Danny Rand," Foggy informs her, as if that name should mean something.

"Okay, I'm guessing that isn't good news," states Donna.

"I'm not sure..." They observe the man making his way towards the ring with the air of determination and confusion around him. "This guy is a damn martial artist, but he's also Matt's ally. They must have done something to him, something awful... He doesn't even seem to recognise us."

Matt apparently knew he was back there already. "They held him in a cage..."

"He has to obey the Gambler's orders." The Doctor then also explains to Foggy how the bets with the glowing hands work and how they force people to follow through by causing them pain. "But it would also goes the other way around and if Matt wins the fight he'll get to walk away or the Gambler is gonna suffer the headaches."

Foggy then stares at his friend's new opponent in horror: "He must have made a similar bet like you did just now. You might end up just like him..."

"At least he'll be free afterwards, no matter what happens to me." Matt sighs and since this attitude doesn't seem to surprise anyone, Donna is starting to understand why he was beaten up when she arrived at their office. This is a guy who risks his life to save others on a regular basis. It probably also means that he makes powerful enemies. People who would try to hit him where it hurts. Like his friends and family...

"Matt, just knock him out. You can do that, right?" Now Foggy sounds a little more hopeful. "He'll be free afterwards, so I guess he'll even thank you for it." That sounds like a good plan.

Before he can enter the ring however the Doctor stops Matt once more. "They drugged him... He's messed up and my guess is he tried to resist orders and his brain is a mental battlefield now, hurting all the time. If you hit his head, I don't know if he'd be able to recover. I'm sorry, but you can't knock him out." Letting this sink in Matt nods slowly. "We need to find a way to fix him somehow, to make him surrender. You just have to keep him busy." That sounds like an awful plan, but right now Donna doesn't have a better idea. What could make it easier to resist again?

"Got it." Matt turns to his buddy who looks at him like it might be the last time. It's probably better that he can't see that face, because it's not inspiring much confidence that things will turn out well. "Call Colleen," is the last thing he says before climbing back into the ring.

Foggy immediately takes out his phone and explains to Donna while dialing: "If anyone can make Rand snap out of this, it's his girlfriend..."

"Good call," Donna agrees and when she sees the Doctor stare at the Carooli, she adds: "Maybe tell her that we need to get him his deepest desire. It could weaken the power keeping him in check." That thought earns her one of the Doctor's "Oh, you're clever"-glances, while Foggy shuffles to a quiet place to explain the situation.

They quietly watch the two fighters get ready.

"I can't believe he agreed to this. It won't get him his daughter back," the Doctor mumbles next to her. "Hope sometimes really is a weakness."

"But he has to try, right? And besides: we get everyone else free, just like we wanted to." Donna has learned quick that you rarely get to save everyone. Pompeii was her biggest lesson in that regard. They even had to cause a city's destruction to prevent a much bigger catastrophe. She'll never forget that. Still, she ended up convincing the Doctor to at least get some people out of there.

"What if we bring him back his daughter? Would he be able to resist then? Better than this guy, maybe?"

"No, we can't." And the finality in his voice tells Donna that maybe this is one of the things they can't do anything about. Maybe Matt's daughter is stuck in some parallel world... Or maybe she's dead. "But I think there's still a chance we can get both, Murdock and Rand, out of this."

Right now, however, those two have to face each other and this time when the fight starts Donna sees Matt move around like a sighted person, blocking kicks and punches quite easily. This way it's a little easier to watch as well. But refraining from fighting back unless he really has to still makes Matt receive a lot of hits, since his opponent is a lot more agile than the one before.

"Murdock, just not the head, you can hit him in other places," says the Doctor beside her and sure enough the man immediately starts defending himself a lot more effectively.

"I still can't believe that he was able to hear that. Does he also lick things to find out what they are, like you do? Or can he behave like a normal person in public...?"

"Well... I guess he has to keep up appearances. Licking things in front of clients might not be a great idea in his profession."

Donna agrees. "They'd probably lock him up and throw away the key." With the Doctor it usually helps that they can run off to another time when they've made a particularly weird impression. It's part of the fun actually.

The audience by now seems quite impressed with the abilities of the blindfolded man and soon people are also pointing at him, whispering about something excitedly. "They're starting to recognise him. He's a well known vigilante in this area who beats up criminals in disguise."

That explains so much about what Donna has seen so far. "He's a hero then?"

"To a section of this audience he will be, but there'll also be quite a few criminals watching this, so..."

"They might want to attack him afterwards."

"Yup," the Doctor confirms, popping the p.

"And if he loses, the Gambler will have lots of new people who would want to fight Matt."

"And if he wins or we get the other guy to surrender, we have to make a very quick exit." He then uses his screwdriver on the window closest to them and Donna grins, remembering that they parked the TARDIS on the roof of this building.

She also sees Foggy making his way back to them. "Alright, Colleen's on her way. Sounds like she's not really on good terms with Danny right now, but she might know what he could be after."

That sounds good enough. Now Matt just needs to keep this fight going for a while. "When this is done we can all make a run for it in the Doctor's ship." Foggy's eyes actually light up at that possibility.

"You mean... he'll give us a ride home? Or back to the office? I'll get to travel in a spaceship?!" At least this trip will then have one upside for him.

But he sobers up quickly, when someone suddenly yells: "That's the Devil of Hell's Kitchen!" Foggy's eyes immediately find his best friend who's just making a rather elaborate move ending with him on top of the other guy.

"M... D... Daredevil...?!", the man underneath him then mutters, before throwing back his head and banging it hard against the ground, screaming in pain.

Matt quickly holds his head, so he can't hurt himself further and the round is declared over. Both men then retreat to their corners and Rand now seems to focus on the guy he's supposed to fight desperately.

"Please, just surrender...", Matt also pleads with him.

When Rand opens his mouth however, his face is quickly twisted in pain again and he sighs, just as the Gambler appears beside him. "Well, well, well... if that isn't an interesting surprise. Looks like you two know each other and I'm in the process of acquiring the Devil himself!" He rubs his hands together in delight like a kid that's about to get a new toy. His very own "Daredevil".

Also, that is really not a hero's name. "Who the hell calls himself the Devil when he's saving people...?!"

"The press gave him that name," Foggy defends his friend.

"Well... his costume has horns," the Doctor points out and Donna can't help snorting at the ridiculousness of this.

"I mean... this guy calls himself the Immortal Iron Fist. Like... a lot." Foggy's best defense is apparently dissing his friend's ally. At least now it looks like this Fist guy might try to surrender.

"Does he have a costume, too?"

"It's armour, okay? He needs it." Foggy's mouth forms a thin line and since Donna actually sees that this argument makes sense, she decides to drop it. They can make some more devil jokes about it later.

But then someone buries a syringe in Rand's shoulder, making his eyes clouded again, which brings Donna back to their very serious reality. After that the Gambler growls right next to his ear: "You gotta fight to kill, now."

"No!", Foggy exclaims beside her while the man with the curly hair holds his head with one hand and starts to reluctantly form a fist with the other.

"What's going on...?", Donna asks the lawyer who's now back in panic mode.

"That... that fist he's named after... If he uses it against Matt..."

The Doctor has to finish that sentence. "Even the sonic screwdriver wouldn't be able to put his bones back together?"

Foggy doesn't even need to say anything. So they all watch in horror as the commentator announces: "Round two!"


	8. Chapter 8: Friends Like These (Part 4)

Spoilers for Iron Fist season 2 in this chapter!

* * *

Donna isn't really into martial arts and she'd never go to watch a fight like this for fun, but she has to admit that there's an elegance to it when it's Matt Murdock and Danny Rand in the ring. Of course, it's a shame that they're pitted against each other, but they both try not to cause too much damage, making it an almost enjoyable back-&-forth.

Although every time the blond guy misses on purpose, he gets reminded by an agonising pain in the head that his job here is to kill, not play.

He still does not use this glowing fist that Foggy was worried about for some reason. Matt also repeatedly tells him that it's okay to not hold back. So, they go in circles like this: Rand throws everything he has at Matt who's blocking or evading him creatively, trying hard not to hurt the other man's head. Whenever he's unable to hold his own like this or when he is hit in a particularly sour spot, Rand stops and screams from the punishment he suffers for it.

After a while the multiple headaches also seem to slow him down which makes his attacks easier to fight off. Maybe he'll even collapse from exhaustion, so Matt wouldn't need to knock him out, but even the blind lawyer looks too tired to keep this up much longer.

"It's getting worse..." The Doctor mutters. "Every time he gets one of these shocks to the brain, it'll get harder to pull him out of this." Well, so much for just waiting for him to drop unconscious.

"And Matty is slipping up more and more as well..." Foggy is back to hiding behind his fingers again, refusing to watch the blood dropping from his buddy's chin.

"Can I ask what happened to his daughter?" It's not like she can do much right now, which means distracting him from the violence and getting more information is Donna's best option at the moment. Maybe it'll help later, in case Matt ends up losing.

The man next to her slumps down in his seat as if the topic is crushing him more than what's happening in front of his eyes. "There's really not much to tell, because we have no clue where she vanished. It's been a year and even Matt wasn't able to pick up any trace of her. He thinks it was one of his enemies, but to be honest I think most of them would probably want him to know it was them."

Donna considers this for a moment. "Could she just be stuck somewhere, unable to find her way back on her own...?" She could be in a parallel world for instance. Really there could be a lot of explanations. It doesn't all have to be so bleak...

"She must be six years old now. Sure, she was a remarkable kid, even had some of her dad''s abilities, but I doubt she'd find New York on a map. We're completely out of ideas and he's..." Foggy watches the duel nervously. "Well, he's never been good at coping. I don't know... I think the only thing that kept him alive was thinking that Hope - that's her name - is still out there somewhere waiting for him to get her. He's always had a temper, but these days..."

"That sounds bad." Sounds pretty close to her first encounter with the Doctor as well. "It can't be easy for you either..." Donna shares a glance with her alien, remembering how he'd said that hope can be a weakness. It also seems like he knows more than what he's saying. Maybe he's trying to protect his friends. Could their search for Matt's daughter be useless and if so, would it be better to tell them or to keep it to themselves? Hope may have been the reason Matt got baited into this bet, but it sounds like it was also his motivation to keep fighting.

And keep fighting he does. At some point she also sees him whisper something in Rand's ear and between rounds he nods at the other fighter, probably signaling that he can take more. Or warning him about the possible brain damage. If the Doctor is right - and he usually is about these things - There's not much more this Immortal-Fist-guy can take to the head.

"Come on Colleen..." Donna hears Foggy mutter under his breath. "Hurry up!"

Round five again starts with Rand backing Matt into a corner, but before he can deliver a solid punch the blind man quickly flips out of his reach and Donna has no idea where he stored the energy for that. The crowd has some mixed reactions, but all of them are loud and it seems that the cacophony of yelling voices is starting to really bother super ears. She sees him trying to block some of it with his hands and the smoke from all the cigars and cigarettes probably doesn't help either.

It was only a matter of time until Matt would miscalculate how long Rand would need before launching the next attack and eventually his involuntary opponent gets to him while he still seems a little disoriented. Completely surprised by the hit Matt falls to the ground unconscious.

"Ten..." Too shocked to do anything for a moment Rand just watches the crowd going insane while blood is dropping from his fists.

"Nine..." After getting hit with another headache for his hesitance, he approaches Matt's completely defenseless body, readying himself for the final punch with a wince.

This can't be happening...

Suddenly the Doctor is next to the Gambler, arguing with him to stop this. "If he's dead, you can't even use him. Order your guy to back off, before it's too late...!" A shrug tells her that the creep doesn't care.

"Eight..." Donna sees Danny Rand's face twisted from the pain, while he's trying hard to resist and at the same time nudging Matt to wake him up. He wouldn't really go through with this, right? If he's even still able to think straight? He seemed more aware of his surroundings when he realised who he was fighting.

Foggy's now shaking his head in denial as someone is counting down way too fast.

Then finally his phone rings showing Colleen's name. Donna and Foggy quickly make a run for the entrance of the place, where they greet a woman with Asian features and long black hair who's just passing the guard. "I was sure I got the wrong word. What does Flow Dab even mean...?!"

But there's no time for banter, so Foggy just grabs her hand and pulls her hurriedly towards the ring where her supposed boyfriend is still hovering over an unconscious Matt, obviously torn over what to do.

"Four..."

If they finish the countdown, it'll be Matt who has to work for the Gambler and fight those headaches whenever he doesn't obey...

"DANNY! Stop it, now!" Immediately the man's face softens and he turns in Colleen's direction.

"Three..." Foggy stares at his buddy still not moving at all.

"Danny, you can have it back! All you had to do was ask, damn it." At those words her hand starts to glow in a yellow light. Is that this strange power Foggy was talking about? Did Rand somehow give it to Colleen?

Her boyfriend however twists his features again in a grimace of pain and despair, looking at Matt as if he's begging him to get up. "Two..." It's only a matter of seconds and Matt will be in his position.

Rand then closes his eyes and mumbles something, raising his fist with a wince. Could he be thinking it would be merciful to just kill the other man instead? No...! But before Donna can say anything he crashes his fist down with full force on the ground where Matt was lying just a second ago. Next to Donna Foggy releases a relieved yelp at the sight of the other lawyer getting back up again while the Doctor quickly comes back to explain the situation to their new arrival. The woman looks clearly concerned when he talks about the damage to the brain these headaches may cause.

Matt then attacks for the first time backing his opponent into a corner and telling him to focus on Colleen while she tries to talk to him. It should be over quickly now, but for some reason it isn't. Her presence doesn't seem to weaken the power of these headaches like it did when she arrived.

"It's not working." Rand just ignores whatever she keeps promising to give back to him. Maybe it's already too late for him.

The Doctor also seems to have noticed. "I guess there's something else he desires more than this Iron Fist."

Donna watches as Colleen keeps accusing Danny about not fighting hard enough, about apparently leaving her to find himself and not even saying goodbye. "And now you just come back and expect everything to be the way you left it? Is that it?! After you didn't even care to let me know if you were alive all this time?"

Since none of this seems to have any effect, it's time to try something a little different. Without a clue what exactly happened between those two, Donna goes up to Colleen putting a comforting hand on the woman's shoulder and then meeting her desperate gaze. "You think, maybe he was just afraid that you'd be angry with him?"

The woman turns back to the two men fighting and she shakes her head. "I..." Just when Matt kicks Rand in his stomach again she holds up her glowing hand and continues, now with less anger in her voice: "This is all you ever wanted, right? But you also wanted to be worthy..."

There's a pause in the fight, because Matt hesitates as the man with the curls is kneeling on the ground and this time he actually seems to focus on the woman talking to him. "Co... Colleen..."

Matt waits and tilts his now with a smirk while the Gambler keeps yelling at them to fight. Rand however just holds his head and tries to listen. "Danny, I understand why you left... I... I hope you found what you were looking for. I really do."

"Tell him that you forgive him," Donna advices, squeezing her shoulder in encouragement.

"Of course, I forgive you... I'm glad that you're back." She smiles at him and an answering dopey grin also spreads on the guy's face, framed with blood and sweat.

"I surrrrender." The words sound a little slurred, but he manages to get up on wobbly legs. Colleen immediately goes to support him while Foggy urges her to get moving.

Donna only catches a glimpse of the Gambler cursing and holding his head in agony before telling everyone that they're free to go. He's quickly surrounded by an angry group of former workers, but before they can attack him Matt pushes them aside to grab him by the collar. She can't hear what the defeated man tells the vigilante, before he drops him to the ground and leaves him with the angry mob.

A group of angry criminals who are probably trying to settle a score with Daredevil then block his way out however and Matt has to fight through them.

When Donna makes Colleen aware of this she pushes her and Foggy towards the window where the Doctor is waiting and turns around to help Matt, clenching her glowing fist. Danny is following her like a puppy.

Helping Foggy and her climb out the window the Doctor leads them up the fire escape where their ship is waiting for their return. Donna takes a moment to appreciate that they all made it out of there alive and free, pretty confident that the rest will follow in a few seconds as well. No need to involve UNIT or Torchwood which means that now comes the best part: Everyone getting a little ride in the TARDIS.

"So, where's your spaceship...? Did you forget where you parked it or something?" Apparently Foggy Nelson expected something a little more futuristic and on the nose.

"Oh, it's right here." The Doctor leans against the blue police box with a huge grin splitting his face. He also doesn't seem to get tired with showing off.

But the lawyer is not impressed. "That just looks like a phone booth. Are you sure you're not insane?" Oh, he is, just not in the way this guy thinks.

That's when his friends arrive. "What the hell is THAT?!" Matt is rubbing his head, trying to make sense of what he isn't seeing and the Doctor raises his eyebrows, obviously intrigued about that reaction.

"I know, right? I don't even think we can all fit in there..." Foggy pouts. "And here I thought this would be a grand exit."

The Doctor ignores this comment and his entire attention is on Matt who's now approaching the TARDIS in wonder taking off the scarf and giving it back to Donna. "What is it you feel?"

The blind man tilts his head and frowns. "A... a whole world... And it seems to be alive as well." He walks a little closer to touch the material. "It shouldn't be possible, but Danny swears dragons are real, so..." Rand shrugs when Matt points at him. Before he can say more they are interrupted by some noise coming from the fire escape.

Quickly the Doctor opens the door to invite everyone, waggling his eyebrows. "How about I show you what it looks like inside."

Donna laughs and grabs Foggy's arm to pull him into the spaceship, since he appears to be frozen on the spot when he sees the much bigger control room of the ship in all it's weird glory.

They all follow, taking in the TARDIS and the Doctor closes the door behind them, before hurrying to get them away from there. He's clearly enjoying this little showcase pushing his buttons and levers with as much flourish as he can and finishing it off with clapping his hands together excitedly. "Done!"

Donna notices Matt looking a little nauseous though. "Are you alright?"

"Um... a little overwhelmed, to be honest." He swallows. "This place, it's a little... disorientating to be honest."

So, it looks like Matt Murdock never travelled in the TARDIS before, but his friend seems to be curious for more. "Disorienting maybe, but also insanely incredible...!"

"I'm with N-nelson," Rand stutters excitedly, still a little messy in the head it seems. "It's the shit!"

Colleen however seems to be a little more on Matt's side. "I don't know, Danny. The fact that we're walking around in something that's alive has me a little nervous."

"Ah, relax. She's not gonna digest you or anything," the Doctor chuckles, but that sentence doesn't seem to calm them much. Foggy also refrains from touching the wall with an irritated little laugh.

In fact the thought apparently makes the "Devil of Hell's Kitchen" sick enough to throw up on the floor, leaving Nelson in shock. "I... I'm sorry... This is just a little much." He gestures around himself and the Doctor hurries to help the man out on familiar ground.

"Alright... See? I just got you home." He opens the door to the dark night again and another roof of Hell's Kitchen. Foggy and Donna follow them outside and as soon as Matt sets his foot on the roof he releases a relieved sigh.

"Thanks," he mutters and the Doctor insists that he's the one who needs to thank him instead.

But it seems as if the vigilante is barely listening to the alien's rambling. "If there's anything I can help you with..."

That offer however makes Matt look up. "You know what happened to her," he states suddenly and Donna immediately knows who he's talking about. She had the same suspicion after all. This is probably the last thing the Gambler was forced to tell him. "She's dead, isn't she?"

The Doctor for a moment looks speechless. "I can't tell you. I'm so, so sorry."

"I figured." The resigned way in which he nods tells her that Matt views this as confirmation enough. "And I feel horrible saying this, but at this point, I just... I hope she's dead. Because otherwise she'd just be suffering. Because of me."

Donna can suddenly feel a lump in her throat as the Doctor opens his mouth and closes it again. What will telling him again how sorry he is achieve anyway?

Then he points back at the TARDIS. "You were a big help today. How about I offer you all a trip. Anywhere in time and space?" After a quiet moment he adds: "You could see her one more time, but I can't let you talk to her."

Matt shakes his head quietly, a tear rolling down his cheek as Foggy carefully snakes his arms around his stiff form. "I don't think... I can't." Donna watches the two friends and she can feel her own eyes water a little. She'll have to ask the Doctor later if there's anything else they can do for them. Maybe not now, maybe another time.

"You said, you could bring us anywhere? How about K'un-Lun? Where Danny grew up? The city the Iron Fist was sworn to protect." Huh, the strange power that now seems to flow through Colleen's hand?

"Can you do that?", asks Danny Rand hopefully.

"That and I can bring you back without anyone even noticing you were gone." The Doctor winks.

"You want to go to the place with real live dragons?!", Foggy wants to know, one arm still around his friend, but certainly intrigued. "Like the fairytale creatures? Big wings, pointy teeth and real hot breath?"

"No human outside of K'un-Lun has ever seen one," the alien confirms with a little spark in his eye. "You want to come along?"

Still in the man's embrace, Matt frowns in concern. "Foggy, it's dangerous..."

"Oh, let your friend have some adventure," Donna says, rolling her eyes at this "Daredevil". "We'll protect him. You just rest here and he'll be back in no time."

"Matty, if you want me to stay..." And he really means it. While it's obvious that Foggy would be very curious to see more of the world, he'd never leave behind a grieving friend just to have some fun.

But the other man also wouldn't want him to miss out like this, so he gives his head a tiny shake and rubs his forehead. "No, I think I need some time alone anyway. But... just be careful, okay?" He even manages a sad smile.

"You don't have to tell ME that." And that at least gets a little chuckle out of the brooding vigilante. He gives Foggy's back a friendly pat and then frees himself from his buddy's embrace. Assuring him once more that he'll be alright Matt waves at everyone before entering the building below.

The Doctor then puts a comforting hand on Foggy's shoulder. "I'll build you that screwdriver on the way. Doesn't mend broken hearts, but at least broken bones."

"That's a good place to start, actually," he answers, still staring ahead to where Matt left only seconds ago.

"Come on," Donna leads him back inside, where she also introduces herself to Danny and Colleen. "Let me show you guys around!"


	9. Chapter 9 From Hope Murdock's Diary

NOTES:

Okay, this is from the perspective of a troubled teenager, so please excuse the foul language and the overdramatic outlook... ;)

Meet Matt Murdock's daughter.

Also: Um... Endgame/Infinity War spoiler, I guess? I mean, it just felt odd not to include the snap somehow. You know? Especially with the Doctor and time travel involved... But don't expect anything to be according to canon. I might have done some timey wimey crossover tweaking to make it fit.

Donna's fate also comes up. And gets changed a bit.

* * *

So, my parents thought I was dead, but they didn't know for sure, which meant - since they were damn fucking heroes - that they kept looking for me. Spare me the blind joke. It's just not funny anymore. Where was I? Right: They practically turned Hell's Kitchen upside down for me and even searched beyond that in that first year I was missing. Anywhere girls like me could end up in the hands of god knows who. Anywhere I wasn't. I'm sorry to tell you, but they never found me.

This isn't a story of hardships shaping people to be able to save the world and get the happy end they deserve. It's no superhero origin story for me either (although some super powers may be involved...). This is a shit show with several endings and none of them would be considered really happy. As far as I know. You could maybe call some bitter sweet, since you already know I am very much alive. Otherwise I wouldn't be writing these lines. Honestly, I don't even know who I'm telling all this. Maybe my children some day. Or more likely, one day I'll be reading this and tossing the ramblings of my younger stupid self into the garbage. Who knows?

He told me to start writing things down. The Doctor. Said it would help to make sense of it all. Make sure I don't mess things up any more than they already are by telling anyone something they're not supposed to know. He has some nerve to warn me about that. Am I right?

It must have been after the first time the Doctor showed up with Donna in my parent's life, that dad received this strange package. It included a letter in braille and a video of me telling him and mom, that I'm fine and that I'm safe with my grandparents. It was the first sign of life they got from me. A first message of Hope if you want. ;)

Sorry, I can't help it.

Of course, these people weren't my grandparents, but I couldn't know this at the age of six. I just went with what they told me, because I didn't have a choice. In my world you could just get dumped with new relatives, because living with them would be safer. Whatever. All I knew was that I couldn't go back home. I cried a lot when I finally understood what that meant, but Donna was there to cheer me up with recording a message for my poor parents.

My dad… he wasn't in a good place either when he received it. At first he was as happy as he could possibly be, however it was soon followed by confusion and anxiety. Somehow he never really got rid of the idea that one of his enemies used this to mess with him. Rationally, he understood everyone's arguments against that logic, that this wouldn't make sense, that people like Fisk enjoyed other form of torture, that Lenny Morano was a backstabbing psycho, but he only does what would help him and his business. And believing that people like that were behind this would mean they won, even from their grave or their prison cell.

Still there was this irritating uncertainty and he kind of always thought that everyone was trying to hurt him. (Who could blame him?) He couldn't fathom the notion of someone sending a message like that in an attempt to be kind. Something like this didn't happen in the world he was brought up in. A world in which he had to be reminded again and again that it's not dangerous to let other people in.

Also, he couldn't see the video. He had to show someone else to know if this was in fact me. See, he hadn't heard my voice for a year and he had no way of knowing what the screen was showing. Aunt Jessica told me, that this kind of thing was the reason she braced herself whenever he called her. Because apparently he mostly reached out for her help when things were already falling apart. So he also showed her this little girl, blabbering about what she did that day, and then he asked her if this was his missing little girl or if he was crazy to believe it. Dad made Jessica Jones cry that day. You heard that right. She pretended that her tears were some sort of allergic reaction, but he knew she missed me almost as much as he did.

Of course, she immediately started treating this like one of her cases, looking for clues. There also was this little detail of a newspaper showing things that happened after I disappeared. An article about something the Avengers must have done that apparently brought back to life half the population, somehow. That's probably another reason why I don't remember some people from that time.

Anyway, so the newspaper was supposed to prove that I was still alive. Doesn't mean much, of course, if there's time travel involved. All the Doctor had to do was jump in the TARDIS and travel a couple of years back to right after Thanos was defeated. I expected him to bitch about the way the Avengers did that, about the laws of time or something, but he just admitted that Thanos had to be stopped. Part of me thought him and Donna might have stayed there a little longer than they said. I would swear she was dressed differently before they left.

Mum was one of those people who disappeared after I was gone, which is why I don't really remember her from that time. Apparently she returned just in time for the message, shortly after dad had almost accepted that I was dead and she immediately started looking for any sign of me. He also translated the letter for her, so she got the whole message. And when she saw the video of me, it made her hope that they'd be able to find me alive and well somehow. While dad stayed in Hell's Kitchen, in case I'd find my way back home (I didn't), mum travelled around, chasing human traffickers and other scum that would take girls like me.

Uncle Foggy said she got a little obsessed with it, running after one clue in the video when it obviously didn't lead anywhere. And those were the times when dad had to be the one to pull her back and tell her to stop. Make her remember that advice from his letter: "Don't give up on Hope. But also never forget that she wouldn't want you to stop saving others and living your life."

I know. Not the kind of sentence a villain writes. Like I said: Dad was just a little paranoid. Also, no, I didn't want anyone to suffer, because my parents were preoccupied with trying to find me, but...

To be honest, there were moments when I cursed god, the universe, my parents, the fucking Doctor, well basically everyone for what happened to me. I really wish I could say I'd be selfless enough, that I wanted them to be able to move on and focus on keeping Hell's Kitchen as safe as possible. In reality I was even mad at the thought of them giving up on me or at the idea of them possibly being happier without taking care of me. It sucked. Well, I guess, I sucked. I was miserable that I missed out on a life with them, so wanted them to be miserable the entire time. It wasn't fair.

I know what you're thinking: With mum falling to dust and me missing, dad must have been pretty depressed. And he was. He just did not have much time to think about it. He had to search for me and he had to do it for her also. He's a very responsible guy that way and luckily both Foggy and Jessica were still alive to support him whenever things got really rough. By the time mum walked back into his gym one day, not knowing that he had carried on for five years without her, he finally allowed himself to acknowledge just how bad it was and let her hold and comfort him. She was devastated that I wasn't with them, but at the same time she was also beyond relieved that he kept a promise he once gave her: Even after what had happened to her, he was still fighting.

They even finally got married. It might even have had some advantages for them, to live their life without raising a child they never planned to have in the first place. At least not back then, when they were still able to protect their city. Plus: Jessica once joked that I practically killed their sex life. As cool as it was that dad could hear me when I woke up at night and most of the time knew why I was screaming, I could also hear and sense them. You can imagine that would have gotten weird quickly. And it would have stayed weird for as long as I lived with them. Also, their vigilante lifestyle in general didn't really go with starting a family.

But this way they did find some happiness, despite everything. Without me. They even considered adopting another kid after they lost me. I'm embarrassed to say that I had a bit of a fit when I heard about that. I sometimes think they even made it all sound better than it really was, just so I don't feel bad. Maybe, if they'd been more honest with me, I would have been less of a jerk.

Eventually I had to grow up a little and recognise all the good they had done in my name as well. All the things they would not have been able to do if they were busy raising me. Their crusade against assholes who were profiting from modern day slavery saved a lot of lives - a lot of children - and I'll always be proud of them for that. It's a legacy I can't even hope to live up to. ;)

God, I really should stop this.

Anyway, so this is me, Hope Murdock, a child lost in time and space. Who despite the strange circumstances did have a surprisingly decent childhood. Every complaint I'd ever want to voice always gets stuck in my throat when I think of the horrible deals my parents got. Not just with their own upbringing, but also with pretty much most of what followed after that.

Make no mistake: I'm a spoiled brat. I might have some issues from getting pulled out of my loving home, but I only have myself to blame. (And the Doctor and Rose.) Still: I ran away. Dad wanted to start training me. He was just worried that something could happen to me. Although he tried not to make too powerful enemies after he had me, there were still dangerous people who knew he was Daredevil and he didn't want to lock me away for my own safety, to become a lonely, paranoid freak. I was five years old, of course I was scared shitless when I heard him talk about that to aunt Jessica.

I mean... looking back at it I think he had a point and I'm sure he wouldn't have done it the way his own teacher did. Every time I as much as hurt my little toe and cried, he would pick me up and comfort me until I wanted to play again. I always felt safest in his arms. As a little girl I was sure he could protect me against anything. Not that he didn't scare me sometimes. Dad always got very angry when I did something stupid and reckless. He'd never hit me or anything, but his disappointment alone always was punishment enough for me. Sometimes I wonder what it would have been like, if he had been like this when I hit puberty and really started acting crazy.

After I ran away my childhood ended up being quite ordinary. No villains to fight or run from, no way for anyone to use me as leverage. The only one hurting me was my stupid ass. Also: You know how grandparents are. They pamper you in a way parents never would.

I didn't get trained. So far. I'm supposed to be normal and blend in which isn't easy when you have super senses from your dad and some weird psychic abilities from your mum. That I needed to be able to control a little. I still run away sometimes. Didn't learn a thing from getting stuck here apparently. But what can I say? I got dad's temper and mum has never been a wallflower either. So, I don't know how they expected me to live a quiet life. I didn't get their looks, by the way, which is a bummer. People keep telling me that I'm cute, but I've seen pictures of my parents and I sometimes I think that I can't possibly be their's. And then I smell that my cat has thrown up a hairball downstairs and I go to clean that shit up, rolling my eyes. Elektra is my cat and I gotta clean up after her.

You're probably wondering if I got the devil in me, too, right? I always thought it was a little sexist to only see that curse in the Murdock boys. It's not like they told me about that, by the way. I just heard that phrase after I really got into trouble the first time. I mean, nobody at school knew it was me who let that bully trip, but at home they immediately figured it out. I knew they weren't too mad, although they grounded me for it. A part of me thought of it as making my parents proud.

Some day, I might even follow their example after all, although they wouldn't want that for me. A life like that. Always waiting for some bad guy to try and settle a score. But I just can't help being bored, you know? Once you realise just how exciting your life could be, it's kind of hard to not find this comfy little nest you have rather lame. Donna understood. She told me she was only bothered with how dull her own life was after she was randomly beamed into the TARDIS and met its mad driver. She said that she never wanted to leave again. That's how much she loved it.

However, since the Doctor showed up with different companions, I eventually had to ask him what happened to Donna Noble, half expecting that he just hasn't met her yet. But he had. The story he told me then almost made me feel sorry for him and broke my heart for Donna. In the end, she ended up being the most important woman in the universe and she had to forget all about it, all about her alien best friend and her adventures, or she would die. The Murdock part of my brain immediately thought: That's what you get for getting close to people while trying to save the world.

But at least she didn't know what she was missing, right? She wasn't really worse off than before, I insisted on reminding myself. She was offered a job at Nelson & Murdock, but she didn't know why, because she didn't know these New York lawyers and she didn't want to leave her grandfather alone. Instead she ended up working for a UK branch of Danny Rand's company and the man made sure her talents, her incredible sensitivity and her jokes were appreciated. Because he saw her awesomeness. I heard that she even saved the last baby dragon in this mystical place called K'un Lun with uncle Foggy, who also got his finger burned while playing with the small, not so harmless creature.

And they did not have her reception without her. So there's that.

The Doctor asked me to travel with him, once. That way I could go to a different time and never stay anywhere long enough for people to execute those elaborate revenge plans stupid supervillains come up with. But one: I'm kind of still mad at the Doctor. And two: I can't travel in the TARDIS anymore. My senses might not be as strong as my dad's, but I still feel how powerful that ship is and it scares the shit out of me.

Not that I wouldn't be tempted to use it. You could change history with that thing. Apparently, that's bad. In one of his lectures the pompous time lord explained to me that this kind of thing is something evil people would do with a time machine. Ignore the laws of the way things are supposed to be, the fixed points in time, and form the world the way they want it, at the expense of others.

Humanity has to remember it's mistakes to learn from them he used to say. You can't just go back like you do in a computer game when there's a level you couldn't finish. You can't try again and again until everything is perfect. Life is a lottery and sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Yadda... yadda... But let me tell you something about this: I feel like no amount of winning now can make up for what my family has lost. We're cursed, alright. I'm rootless and we were robbed of so many moments that we should have shared together. The Doctor could offer to bring me anywhere in the universe, apart from the one place I want to go: Home. So, fuck him.

So, why can't I go back? Because of one frustratingly simple, idiotic mistake. There's no Thanos behind my disappearance and no Wilson Fisk. You know who my "grandparents" are, right? Well, it took me a while to figure it out. Her face I didn't really remember, but I should have known who he was right away. He is just... different. The old man taking care of me is blind, quiet and he sometimes smiles at me like I am a goddamn miracle. He would argue with me about right and wrong and drag me to church. He would listen quietly to all my ridiculous little problems, to all my little teenage drama and to my heartbeat. When I'd lie he would sometimes call me out on it, but most times he would just smirk and let it go. He tells me to be careful, but he doesn't scold me too much.

And all it took was the TARDIS landing in the wrong fucking decade. All that sealed my fate was dad stepping out of his office - because of course he's still working - and recognising his daughter that ran away 44 years ago. It was that moment that made it true. An established event in our timeline that we weren't allowed to change. They keep saying that I'll understand some day. Why the Doctor couldn't have just brought me back to where I sneaked on his ship and pretend this never happened. But you know: Half the world died and was brought back! Who would care about one little girl being returned to the right place in time? It doesn't make any sense!

Mum and dad are surprisingly accepting of it all. Sure I know that initially they were angry, but in the end they were also grateful for getting me back, even if it might only be for a couple of years. Of course, mum had her own experience of skipping time and learning that I was missing on top of dealing with that. That must have been fun. Really, I should just be glad that they're both still around and that they got to raise me after all.

But I have a feeling that there's still something they're not allowed to tell me. Like all the things old Matt wasn't allowed to mention in this letter to his younger self.

Ignorance may be bliss sometimes. But not if you're Donna Noble who will never remember that she made sure Matt Murdock had a little less uncertainty in his life and not if you're Hope Murdock. Because I know that I'll be alone in the world soon. All I can do now is treasure every second until then. And I will.


End file.
